The signal box with three members of staff but no trains
Martin Shipton
Three members of staff are employed to run a rail signalbox – even though no trains run on the redundant line it serves.
A post by Phil Jones on the Neath Town Talk Facebook page states: “I can’t decide if this is the best job in the world or the most boring and uninspiring job in the world.
“The afternoon shift turned up at 2pm today to relieve the morning shift, at the signal box alongside the footbridge crossing over towards Neath College. I live back to back with the railway line and I am not aware of any trains using this track this year.
“Looking at the rusty tracks and the trees and bushes growing on the track it looks like it hasn’t seen a train for longer than that.
“Since Aberthaw power station shut down, no coal is carried on this line any more but the signal men/women remain in place every day.
“Best job or worst job I can’t decide.”
A spokesperson for Network Rail, the state-owned company that owns Britain’s rail infrastructure, told us: “Network Rail is in the process of temporarily closing the Neath and Brecon line through the ‘Short-Term Network Change’ process.
“The line had initially been maintained as operational to support potential future requirements from the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE). However, following GCRE’s announcement last year that its expansion ambitions had been paused until at least 2030, we have begun the temporary closure process.
“The staff consultation has now been completed and we are awaiting confirmation of the date the temporary closure will take effect.
“The three signallers currently associated with the line will be redeployed elsewhere within the business, providing additional resilience to our wider operational teams.”
Aberthaw power station officially closed on March 31 2020.
The GCRE project has faced difficulty in attracting private sector investment to take it forward.
In July 2026 Nation.Cymru reported how a transport campaigner, Dr John McTeague, had called on the Auditor General to investigate what he says is a doomed proposal to establish an international rail testing centre in Wales that has cost the Welsh Government tens of million of pounds.
Dr McTeague sent every Senedd Member a copy of his appeal against Audit Wales’ decision to put any inquiry on hold pending a decision by the new Welsh Government.
In his appeal, Dr McTeague accused former Transport Minister Ken Skates of being responsible for wasting £50m of public money on the project at Onllwyn, on the border of Neath Port Talbot and Powys.
Audit Wales wrote to Dr McTeague stating: “We have no immediate plans to examine the GCRE project in more detail ourselves in advance of any decisions taken by the new administration. The Senedd’s previous Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee took an interest in the GCRE project’s progress and expenditure. In its legacy report, the Committee noted that, following the Senedd elections, the new administration would need to make decisions about the future of the project and recommended that its successor committee keep under review and monitor issues relating to the Welsh Government’s financial support.”
Review
In his response, Dr McTeague stated: “Could the Auditor General please review your decision. An investigation should be carried out for the following reasons.
“The level of project funding that has been wasted, currently at £48m soon to rise to £50m million, is far in excess of any of the previous projects subjected to investigations by the Auditor General (eg Circuit of Wales £14.9m, TVR [sports car project] £12.35m, Gilestone Farm £4.25m.)
“The Minister responsible for Transport, Ken Skates, introduced GCRE in July 2017 as a replacement for the failed Circuit of Wales project.
“GCRE was introduced in haste and was based on the French Railennium Centre opened in July 2017 after funding by the French Government of £475m supplied in 2011.
“It was not introduced in response to an industry-led demand and was introduced as a political necessity to avoid the backlash from the Circuit of Wales project failure.”
Mr Skates, now the leader of Welsh Labour, did not respond when we asked him to respond to Dr McTeague’s comments.
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The Butterfly House on Desolation Bay has wasted £48 million on the idea of a super train set + £12.35 million on TVR, a car racing set and £4.25 million on a Welsh Gov Glasto…this is big boys toys stuff…What they have spent on push bike tracks must be astronomical, add pushing sticks into the ground for months on end yet leaving the mature tree cover and hillsides to the devil… Butterflies not Polymaths…Thompson Twins…BBC journalists, oh dear, how awkward. That is enough Solicitor Politicians and perhaps there is a lack of vocational types, oh dear and the place is… Read more »
The redundant line actually runs from Kings Dock in Swansea, up behind Amazon, under the Swansea main line at Neath (signal box) then to Aberdulais up to Crynant, Ynysfadog, Seven Sisters and terminates at Onllwyn at Coelbren. It would be an ideal ‘heritage’ line possibly running a steam type tourist attraction. However, Swansea Council and the Welsh Government think that a zip-wire on Kilvey Hill is the future of tourism and are transfixed by the Global Centre of Rail Excellence” fantasy. Into which they sink millions. A decision on the future of this line is needed, otherwise it will just… Read more »
Well said, John McTeague. The GCRE is a dead parrot and should be consigned to the bin forthwith. The GCRE follows a pattern – instead of investing in, say, health or education – our governments prefer to mount risky ‘spectaculars’ reliant on unreliable and skittish private investment that don’t fit into any long-term strategy, add to resilience, or employ significant numbers of people. Such speculative activity might appear dynamic and newsworthy (Cardiff airport expansion, datacentres, nuclear, re-armament, motorways, excessive energy developments) but are unsustainable and fail to meet real needs. The Plaid Cymru Government should start with the basics –… Read more »
If they don’t fit into a long-term strategy it’s because there isn’t one not that the projects are flawed. If there’s a problem with political approach to economic development it’s the desire to champion one large saviour to cement their legacy rather than a hundred smaller anonymous projects that quietly go about the business of creating real jobs and growth.
Yes, you’re partly right, Dom. There isn’t a long-term strategy AND the projects are flawed.
They all form part of performative government, not competent and applied governance.
Each project needs to be debated individually. Simply dismissing everything out of hand suggests you have a vision of everyone living in yurts.
The test centre would have been useful if it went straight into function , but as it wasn’t properly financed it’s flopped around for years increasing in cost regularly and I don’t even think the environmental studies have been undertaken which would delay it considerably even if the money was found now .
Typical commercially inept Wales .