<-- Project Impacts  - Transport

The transport impacts of the Ebbw Valley Railway scheme have been calculated by looking at how many people are currently travelling to/from and within the Ebbw Valley and how likely is it that people will choose the railway service if one is provided.

To answer these questions bus and car counts and questionnaire surveys were undertaken to determine the current levels of demand for travel in the rail corridor and likely future travel demand.

The surveys identified approximately ten and a half million annual trips within, to or from the valley. Of these, 8.8 million or 83% were made by car, with the remaining 1.7 million or 17% by bus.

A model was developed from the information gained in order that an assessment could be made of likely numbers of people that would use the railway.  

It was calculated that the scheme should attract almost 0.5 million passengers per annum in the first year of operation of the two trains per hour service (services to Cardiff and Newport). This is forecast to rise to 0.95 million within 10 years through a combination of new trip generation/distribution and underlying growth as other regeneration initiatives take effect. Around 45% of the demand is expected to come from the car.