March 10th 2021 · “Rail Policy in Wales – Looking Back and into the Future.”
Presenter: Professor Stuart Cole
63 Zoomers from South Wales, and England (welcome all) joined us for Professor Stuart Cole’s (Emeritus Professor of Transport at South Wales University) excellent coverage of “Rail Policy in Wales” with the emphasis on the developments post privatisation. Stuart has been at the Welsh rail transport policy coal face during that time and has gained more inside experience than any other person.
A short historical introduction led us into the initial privatisation structure. The Welsh have a word for it, “cawlach” – roughly a soup-inspired shambles. The “English” (sorry visiting zoomers) civil service imposed an organisational disaster on Wales with 8 different non integrated companies running trains in Wales. First North Western, Virgin Trains, Central Trains (the Barmouth to Yarmouth railway) First Great Western, Cross Country, Wales and the Borders, Cardiff and the Valleys and Alphaline. Stuart was instrumental in sorting out the “English” (apologies to our visiting zoomers again) civil service into creating Arriva Trains Wales in 2003, which merged Cardiff and the Valleys, Wales and the Borders, and the Welsh bits of Alphaline, Central trains and First North Western.
The DFT still treated Wales with contempt however and any improvements to Welsh train services i.e new (old) trains, new stations, line re openings, new routes, improved services all came out of the Welsh devolved budget (which did not include any funding for railways.)
An opportunity was missed by the Labour administration in Cardiff to take responsibility for Network Rail in Wales after 2003 (idiots – sorry me again) unlike Scotland which did and has lead to the transformation of Scotland’s railways and massive levels of investment by Network Rail Scotland.
Thankfully things have changed. With Stuart’s influence and cost benefit analysis studies and consultancy reports Andrew Adonis gave the go ahead for electrification from Paddington to Swansea. Network Rail messed that up and at triple the cost and five years late the wires reached Cardiff. The DFT still managed to mess that up further by ordering the IEP with bone hard seats (sorry to have another go at the English civil service but they really are a disaster.)
However in recent years (again thanks to Stuarts’ influence and costings) the decision making and much of the budget has been devolved to Wales, and the results are fantastic (if a little behind schedule.) Arriva has been sent packing back to Germany (they were awful) and in turn Keolis Amey have been taken over by Transport for Wales Rail. Wales is to have a brand new train set. CAF long distance DMU’s, Stadler regional DMU’s, Stadler Tri modes, and Stadler bi modes for the Valleys, and refurbished Mk4’s with the best dining service in Britain for North to South Wales. The Valley Lines is being electrified with a superb frequency of trains, and all of them will have comfortable seats, toilets and guards on the train.
There are plans to actually integrate ticketing with integrated bus and rail and have a Swiss level of frequency and connections (not difficult in a small country with everyone working together.)
Stuart then talked about the might have been and the next must haves. There was a great plan for HS3 (built along the M4) linking Paddington with Heathrow, Bristol, Cardiff and Cardiff Wales airport to open Terminal 6 for Heathrow. The airport to airport links would have taken 36 minutes!
Not having an HS3 will put Wales and the West at a massive disadvantage to England and Scotland.
However there are plans for a Swansea District line service (which will happen if Plaid Cymru become part of the Welsh Government) to link Cardiff to Port Talbot Parkway, a North Swansea Parkway station (to relieve the second most overcrowded and dangerous part of the M4 in Wales) and allow easy commuting from Carmarthen to Cardiff. There is also a plan to speed up the whole of the South Wales mainline and of course electrify to Swansea, and from Cardiff to Barry and Penarth and the Vale of Glamorgan line.
Big plans also exist to take traffic off the M4 around Newport with new Metro services, and to dramatically improve connectivity and speed and quality on the North Wales railway lines. This line has to be electrified to connect with HS2.
So by 2024 Wales will have the most modern and integrated railway system in Britain (if not the world!) and much of this has come about by the unremitting commitment and energy of Stuart. Thank you, Stuart.
Many thanks to Peter, and also to Jeremy Segrott for hosting and managing the Zoom technology so efficiently, and to the inestimable Stuart Warr for helping Stuart with the images.
The next meeting will be on 14 April when Alan Williams will be taking us to Switzerland with a talk on the Rhatische Bahn.