Metro could bring 12 trains an hour

THE next phase of the Welsh Government’s flagship rail Metro project will be delivered in five years’ time with up to a dozen services an hour operating on parts of the core Valley Lines, says Transport Secretary Ken Skates.

After the project has come under attack from Plaid Cymru’s economy spokesman Adam Price for not committing in its next phase to electrifying the Ebbw Vale line, Mr Skates said there was “absolutely no question” about the Welsh Government’s commitment to “funding the Metro vision”.

And in a letter to AMs, he said that while electrification of the core Valleys Lines into Cardiff would be completed by 2023, this had to be seen as just the next phase in a long-term investment commitment that would see the network extended in future years.

Discussions between Welsh Government officials and the UK Government’s Department for Transport are continuing over the rail asset for the core Valley Lines being transferred from Network Rail to Cardiff Bay.

This would allow the Welsh Government to procure the electrification of the four lines into Cardiff, for which £734m of funding has been ringfenced and which includes a £125m commitment from UK Government.

The winning bidder, in a procurement process in which only two bidders remain in MTR and KeolisAmey, after Arriva Trains Wales and Abellio pulled out of the process, should be known in May.

The winner will also run the next 15-year Wales & Borders rail franchise from October.

The process of devolving the franchise from the UK Government to the Welsh Government has moved a step closer with the laying of an order in Westminster.

Mr Skates said the next phase of the Metro would deliver a turn-up-andgo upgrade of the core Valleys network, with a minimum of four services per hour from places on its periphery, such as Merthyr and Treherbert, into Cardiff and up to a dozen from other stations such as Pontypridd.