Pressure is building for historic Cardiff Central Station to be redeveloped to tackle future demand, after Network Rail said the Rugby World Cup exposed its 'fundamental limitations'.
The national operator is joined by Arriva Trains Wales, which suggested the historic station suffers from narrow platforms and subways, while Great Western Railway even floated the idea of a new station for use only on event days.
Network Rail said recent World Cup matches at the Millennium Stadium exposed the station’s ‘fundamental limitations’, while passenger numbers at Cardiff Central are expected to grow from 13m this year to 23m in 2023 and 32m by 2043.
‘Network Rail is therefore exploring options to deliver a major redevelopment of the station during the next five-year funding period, which starts in 2019,’ Network Rail will tell a Welsh Assembly committee inquiry into Rugby World Cup transport planning on Thursday.
In the summer it unveiled plans to revamp the station, with the World Cup situation making some form of expansion very likely as the city faces a growing population and is hosting and increasing number of major events.
Network Rail is working with Cardiff CC to integrate with the council’s plans for the Central Square site, where the bus station closed in August, but warns that the passenger queueing system for crowds after major events ‘should be factored into the wider redevelopment of the Central Square area’.
ATW wants urgent consideration of queueing in the ‘property-led development currently underway’, and argued that temporary or permanent canopies are required to shelter waiting passengers.
ATW compares Bristol Temple Meads’ 15 platforms with Cardiff Central’s seven, one of which is too short for London trains and wide enough only for 200 people at a time.
The station’s Grade II listed status previously hindered development and needs reconsideration, ATW says.
