Overdue investment and a better deal for Welsh railways
WALES has often been the forgotten part of the UK, attracting little attention or media interest.
That is illustrated by the terrible franchise arrangement under which rail services were provided until the end of 2018. The 15-year deal won by Arriva and which started in 2003 essentially allowed for no growth and virtually no investment. This was on top of many years in which the rail network in the country had suffered severe underinvestment.
The network is, in fact, hardly worthy of the name. The railways in Wales are a bizarre hotchpotch of lines which, remarkably, do not even allow for a journey between the lines in the south and those in the north without venturing across the border into England. Hence the name of the franchise, which was Wales & Borders.
Despite the fact that the Welsh Government and Assembly were created in 1999, the franchise was entirely controlled from Westminster, offering no role for the new devolved bodies. The result was nothing short of disastrous, leading to a hiatus in investment and complaints of overcrowded services and dilapidated rolling stock.
Indeed, such was the level of complaint Arriva withdrew from the bidding process for the new franchise when it became clear that the company had no chance of winning - even though, in fairness, many of the problems were down to the design of the franchise rather than anything over which the train operator had control.
The increased focus on devolution since then, with new powers granted to Northern Ireland and Scotland, meant there was no question that things had to change. But it has been a struggle for Welsh politicians, and it was only after much pressure that responsibility for allocating the new franchise was given to the newly created Transport for Wales, a part of the Welsh government.
The result has been a far better deal for Welsh railways and a considerable amount of money being made available for investment. But there are still struggles ahead.
The good news is that £800 million is allocated to new rolling stock, £200m for stations (including six new ones), and a further £736m to transform the Valley Lines, a network of half-a-dozen services that run up the valleys from Cardiff. Although these lines were built originally to carry coal, they are now heavily used by commuters into the Welsh capital. But the service is clearly inadequate, as often trains are overcrowded.
In the early days of the franchising system created by privatisation in the mid-1990s, the Valley Lines were a separate franchise, before being merged into the wider Wales & Borders operation.
Now the Valley Lines are set to skip a generation of technology and become pioneers for a new type of train on the network: ‘trimodes’ - battery, diesel and overhead electric. Essentially, one branch (the Rhymney line) will
be equipped for heavy rail trains by 2023, and the Merthyr Tydfil, Aberdare and Treherbert lines for light rail operation by 2022. Batteries will enable all the vehicles to operate over unelectrified track.
The Rhymney line trains will also continue through Cardiff, on lines which will not be electrified (hence the need for diesel on its trains). Batteries will be needed on all the trains in order to avoid having to electrify all the lines, given the problems with the large number of overbridges, which contributed to the massive overspend on the electrification of the Great Western Main Line.
So, the plan is to introduce tri-mode trains (made by Stadler), which inevitably will be more expensive and less environmentally advantageous. Despite this, Welsh Transport Minister Ken Skates is confident that this is the best option.
The Welsh Government is taking over the infrastructure of these lines, enabling the creation of an integrated operation. This has been delayed, owing to legal and technical issues, but is due to happen early in the New Year. And that is seen as the start of a more extensive takeover by the Welsh Government.
I managed to grab half an hour with the very busy Ken Skates when I was speaking at November’s Wales National Transport Conference, and there is no disguising the scale of his ambition: “We are looking very closely at the Williams Review and have made a submission asking for greater devolution and a future guarantee of funds that will ensure we can improve the railway.”
In particular, he said, the Welsh Government wants to take over all the local rail infrastructure, but only “following a comprehensive assessment of its condition”.
It was noticeable that Skates’ speech at the conference contained quite a lot about roads, despite the fact that earlier this year the Welsh Government had made the game-changing decision to scrap the £1.4 billion M4 relief road - a move that has been widely welcomed by environmental campaigners across the country. I challenged him on this, and he replied: “I wanted to give a clear message that we are investing in roads, but most of what we are focused on is about transforming the rail network.”
The problem for Skates is that he has to justify future investment, and the rules are set against him. He told me: “The formula for investing has to change. The current government has offered warm words about investment needed for areas left behind, but there has been no change to the appraisals. We need more investment outside of places that are already well served by rail services.”
The difficulty is that the Benefit:Cost Ratio for less densely populated areas such as Wales will be worse, because the calculation of ‘benefits’ (from the hugely complicated system called WebTAG) favours places where there are already plenty of rail passengers.
Wales, in fact, wants to use its own assessment system called WelTAG, which takes into account legislation that is unique to Wales - the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. This law requires all public organisations to take into account the long-term effects of decisions and to consider the knock-on impact in relation to the prosperity of people in Wales, its environment, culture and communities.
In terms of railways, this means that investments can be made with a much longer and wider assessment of the benefits. As a result, Skates argues: ‘Under our economic action plan, we are looking at funding infrastructure on the basis of a more intelligent format that takes into account social and demographic issues across Wales.”
We could do with similar legislation throughout the UK!