A brave new world of trains inWales means hard choices
The process for setting up the new Wales and Borders franchise in October 2018 involves four bidders – Abellio, Arriva, Keolis and MTR – with probably four quite different visions which have to be converted into one final specification shaping our railways for the next 15 years
The new franchise will hopefully see a brave new world of trains in Wales. But it will take three to four years before the “transformational traveller experience” and easy travel which Economy Secretary Ken Skates – and passengers present and future – want to see, with new services and new (or recent second-hand) trains, becomes a reality.
That requires Transport for Wales (TfW) to make many difficult choices and decisions.
TfW will assess the bids in terms of the Government’s priorities, although the Cabinet will be closely involved in the final allocation of the £3.5bn contract and it will be scrutinised by the National Assembly.
This franchise is unique because it has two parts:
South-west, mid and north Wales – a conventional diesel-based service where Network Rail operates the infrastructure, with the operations run by TfW and the successful bidder.
Cardiff/Valley Lines Metro with a power source change from diesel to electric for some or all services.
An option was for TfW to take infrastructure maintenance and investment responsibility to electrify the Valley Lines, with an appropriate increase in block grant as occurs in Scotland.
However, the UK Government has turned this down in responses to the House of Commons and Welsh Government.
The current “competitive dialogue” process requires bidders to produce high-level solutions for frequencies on different lines, a national fleet strategy, community rail plans, station development plans, journey time reductions, ticketing and fares levels, market growth, integration with bus services and other elements.
From these, TfW may take the best ideas, but even this high-level assessment will be difficult and the devil is usually in the details – which is what affects passengers directly.
Details such as track capacity increases between Gowerton and Llanelli can, for a small investment (£45m), provide a future minimum half-hourly frequency to Carmarthen and Whitland (with a large park-andride facility) and hourly to Pembroke Dock and Milford Haven.
This would make the railway a more attractive proposition for tourists, businesses or commuting motorists currently using the M4.
Travellers looking for easy travel and interchange may often find access between the railway and bus services or cycle and walking more problematic.
At a major level, the bus element of Cardiff’s city transport interchange is currently uncertain.
The old bus station – its closure met with incredulity by several cities the size of Cardiff – should have had a guaranteed replacement bus station incorporated into the Central Square redevelopment.
Meanwhile, hapless passengers wait in shelters scattered around the city centre.
In November the city council offered full information on bus stops and services in the central area, which it has readily available.
But this information has not been forthcoming, despite a sponsor being prepared to fund well-designed poster maps, pocket hard copies and electronic information.
So visitors by train to the “events city” are less than well-informed about onward travel and are without conveniently located and pleasant waiting areas for bus services.
On a more local level, Llandaff railway station has a smart (as in attractive) and expensive new car park with specified disabled driver parking and cycle stands.
What is not at all smart (as in clever) is an inconvenient pedestrian approach, only one extra parking space and the relocation of the ticket office from the Cardiff southbound platform – where 90% of station users catch their trains – to the northbound platform, which takes 10% of passengers.
This was described to the local AM as the “optimum” arrangement.
Network Rail, Arriva Trains and the Welsh Government created this arrangement. Apparently users were interviewed, though I could find none last week who were consulted and most considered the new location incredible and inconvenient.
Moreover, the replacement machines on the Cardiff platform take up to three minutes to dispense a ticket compared with 30 seconds at the current ticket office. At that rate, 20 people per train requiring tickets at the station would take an hour – and that in the context of Arriva’s “enthusiastic” revenue protection system.
Hardly the “best traveller experience” and “easy travel”.
Wales’ patron saint wisely advised us “gwnewch y pethau bychain” – to do the small things. The devil certainly is in the details – at national, strategic and customer level.
Professor Stuart Cole CBE is Emeritus Professor of Transport (Economics and Policy) at the University of South Wales.