Random Stuff!!

[Jerry]

I'm surprised that the Spanish venue is Bilbao and not Madrid or Barcelona.

I think it's designed that way so smaller countries and cities get a chance. One of the host cities is Baku. If Cardiff gets picked then the hope would that Wales would qualify or that if the Irish, English and Scots qualify then maybe one of those gets to play at the stadium as they would bring a big travelling support.

 

[Jerry]

I'm surprised that the Spanish venue is Bilbao and not Madrid or Barcelona.

I think it's designed that way so smaller countries and cities get a chance. One of the host cities is Baku. If Cardiff gets picked then the hope would that Wales would qualify or that if the Irish, English and Scots qualify then maybe one of those gets to play at the stadium as they would bring a big travelling support.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I don't know if the draw will be arranged so that countries play their group matches 'at home' if their own country is staging group games. The draws can be quite complex with seedings from the various pots, although it's not as bad as the World Cup where world zones are also in the mix to arrive at an even (as far as possible) spread of seeded and geographically distinct countries.

 

[Jerry]

I thought they the teams were supposed to be guarenteed at least 1 home game? I may be wrong though.

 

[Jerry]

Dr Ami Jones who is the National Director for Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service (EMRTS) which works with the Wales Air Ambulance and Captain Winston Thomas who is the owner of Pembrey Airport have both been awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) in the Queens Birthday honours.
https://www.aviationwales.com/welsh-flying-medic-gets-mbe/

 

[Jerry]

Sadly 1100 jobs will be lost in Cardiff as Tesco will close their customer call centre based in Llanishen Cardiff. They will be moving operations to Dundee and expanding their by creating 250 jobs. The centre is due to close in February 2018. I did here on 5 Live that this has come out of the blue for the staff and that the Welsh government were only notified 45 minutes before the announcement. Hopefully the staff can be found jobs elsewhere.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/busine...s-1200-tesco-jobs-13217839#ICID=FB-Wales-main

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Not good news at all. Let's hope that the staff are able to find alternative employment quickly. I hadn't realised there was a major Tesco call centre in Cardiff. My wife has always been put through to Dundee when she has an issue with Tesco or, as has happened on rarer occasions, when she wants to compliment their service.

 

[Jerry]

No not good news. I never knew it was a customer service centre. I always thought it had something to do with the supply chain as the company I work does a lot of work for Tesco, their one of our biggest customers and we are one of their own hauliers and on the delivery notes the address for Maes y Coed Road used to come up as the invoice address.

 

[Jerry]

The Welsh government has refused to go guarantor for the debt of the proposed Circuit of Wales. The Economy Secretary Ken Skates stated several reasons one of which the job claims were overstated and that backing the scheme would mean hospitals and schools would not be built.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-40404661

 

[Jerry]

Wales Air Show was on the weekend in Swansea and Cardiff airport saw lots of different aircraft including Hurricane's, Spitfire's and the Red Arrows. Sadly i was unable to go as i was working, though i have seen lots of photos online and it looks great especially the Red Arrows! Wales Online have put up a highlight package so i thought i'd put the link here.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-...est-moments-swanseas-record-breaking-13270259

 

[Jerry]

The Red Arrows at the Wales Air Show.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-...s-airshow-swansea-13271677#ICID=FB-Wales-main

 

[Jerry]

Some links to the airports twitter site with photos of the Red Arrows visit.
https://twitter.com/Cardiff_Airport/status/881579793719984128
https://twitter.com/Cardiff_Airport/status/881802137398804480
https://twitter.com/lisagav69/status/881551766273359874

 

[Jerry]

Good boost for the economy of the area. 300 jobs are to be created in Newport by a Spanish train building company. Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) build trains and trams for all over the country and hopefully for the South Wales Metro in the future and will be investing £30 million in a factory at Celtic Business park on the outskirts of Newport. Wondering if it's the old LG building?
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/300-jobs-created-new-train-13321003

 

[Jerry]

Good boost for the welsh tourism industry and inbound pax at the airport with Wales having one of the biggest increases in inbound tourism.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40592623

 

[Jerry]

'Cardiff Parkway' station in St Mellons which could be the first private train station in Wales has been welcomed by UK Transport Secretary Chris Grayling. The new station would be built south of St Mellons business park.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-40596185
As someone who lives in that part of Cardiff this would be brilliant for the area as it has no train link. I used the train to come back from my sister's in Leeds last week and had to go to Cardiff central then catch a bus back to Llanrumney. A station in St Mellons with a bus links to the local areas and a park and ride would be very helpful! Looks like this project is one step closer and of course would help with getting to the airport!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Private ownership of railways stations is an interesting concept. Currently all the rail infrastructure including stations (apart from Southend Airport Station apparently) is owned by Network Rail, a public body that comes under the auspices of the Department for Transport. Network Rail only manages the largest stations itself with the others managed by the train companies that serve them.

An entrepreneur and his son together with a well-known asset management group appear to be the main drivers of Cardiff Parkway Developments Ltd the company set up to deliver these proposals.

The below linked report, published six months ago, also mentions an aspiration to eventually serve London and CWL from Cardiff Parkway.

https://www.theplanner.co.uk/news/hi-tech-business-park-and-rail-station-mooted-for-cardiff

 

[Jerry]

It's part of a business park development I believe. If they can get the London train's to stop there as well as the local ones it can only be good for the area. I do also wonder if with Qatar coming a Bristol to Newport to Cardiff to Cardiff Airport also stopping at the new station could be viable? The Milford Haven to Manchester train as well would be great for me personally!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

There'd have to be a spur into CWL as well, because the existing Rhoose Halt with its shuttle bus might put off some users.

Currently there are two routes between Bristol and Cardiff (apart from the GWR HSTs that call at Bristol Parkway): from Taunton/Weston-super-Mare and from Portsmouth/Southampton. They both call at Bristol Temple Meads and stop at the main stations between Temple Meads and Cardiff Central.

If there was sufficient rolling stock and pathways - there almost certainly isn't available rolling stock at the moment - some of these trains (probably those from Taunton/WsM) could be extended to Rhoose now but there is unlikely to be sufficient demand from the West Country at present. When the Qatar service beds down it could be looked at again but my feeling is that CWL needs a proper rail connection to the airport itself to make rail a realistic option.

Even 2-3 mppa might not be enough throughput to justify the cost of a new spur and station. It's the age-old problem of the chicken and the egg. In this case if the airport doesn't grow sufficiently to make a rail connection viable it might not get one; if it does get one a spur and station might then help to take the airport to a situation that justifies such a link.

One of the most successful small airport rail connection is at Southampton where the line from Waterloo passes the airport. Built around 50 years ago there was no rail connectivity required to be built, only the station, and although SOU has just reached 2 million passengers in a 12-month period for the first time the station is apparently well used.

Prestwick with a rail connection from Glasgow Central has gone the other way. Not so many years ago it was handling 2.5 mppa. It's currently around 700,000 pa.

 

[Jerry]

As mentioned by Tinkerman in a post in the General Thread Cardiff will see a new station in the Eastern part of Cardiff which will be called Cardiff Parkway and new business park to built around it.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/new-25m-rail-station-south-13357203
Sadly though for Swansea the electrification of the Great Western Mainline will now stop at Cardiff and all Swansea will see is new trains.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/busine...electrification-swansea-cardiff-been-13357575

 

[TheLocalYokel]

So Swansea joins Bristol and Bath in being pushed out of rail electrification. Cardiff and Newport must consider themselves fortunate in not going the same way.

The same government has signed off over £50 billion to build HS2 in areas where there is already electrification yet in Britain west of Cardiff and south-west of Chippenham the rail system will rely on polluting diesel traction probably for many decades to come. That's an area home to over five million people.