Cardiff looks At A Tram Network

Cardiff appears to have various transport problems and a fair bit of congestion, so it is refreshing to see a well-thought out plan being proposed using trams to solve it. It all described here on the BBC’s web site as Cardiff Crossrail.

It may not be ideal and it may just stay in the planning stage, but at a proposed cost of £200 million it would appear to be affordable.

it also seems to make good use of existing infrastructure, which is obviously the way to go. The new London Overground showed that you get value-for-money by this approach and what money you do spend, can be concentrated on what the customers see, like the trains and the stations.

I shall be interested to see how the planning of this project progresses.

The Attacks In Cardiff

The attacks yesterday in Cardiff are very worrying.

The perpetrator has caused one death and a lot of serious injuries and all he used was a weapon available to many; a Transit-sized van.

Millennium and Wembley Stadiums Compared

I’m not comparing anything, but their use for football, as I’ve experienced both in the last few days.

I’d say Wembley is very Jaguar, whereas the much less expediently-built stadium in Cardiff is more Audi, with more concrete and wood and less marble.

On the other hand, the sight lines in Cardiff, may even be better to those at Wembley. You also seem to closer to the action.  I wonder, if this is because it is a much squarer stadium than Wembley. Only an architect with experience of sports grounds would know.

Food in both stadia is the usual gluten-rich junk, but then as the Millennium Stadium is in the centre of Cardiff, anybody who like me is choosy with his food will eat off-stadium. That is not really an option at Wembley, so I always eat before I leave home or in the centre of London.

The Millennium Stadium does lose on access to the trains, whereas Wembley has improved greatly in the last ten years.  I believe Cardiff Central station is being rebuilt, so hopefully, better access will come. But a nearly three hour wait for a train to London is unacceptable, even if First Great Western were their usual helpful self, even handing out bottled water.