Welsh commuters’ French connection
Had enough of the election? Let me take you to another world – or is it? It might seem odd, but visiting the south of France last week I found similarities to Cardiff and south-east Wales for commuters, students and leisure travellers.
In both there is a dominant city (Nice and Cardiff, both populations around 350,000), a second city (Monaco and Newport) and associated sizeable towns (Antibes and Cannes, Barry and Bridgend).
There is an east-west mainline railway from Monaco to Cannes and Newport to Bridgend. Monaco has its harbour with £45m (each) yachts, whileNewport has its port with £70m (each) working ships. But the commuter flows along this French coastal strip and into the inland backdrop are similar to Cardiff and south-east Wales
I was in Nice for the launch of the Tramway 3 plan, a northwards extension of Tramway 2 (under construction) to a commuter area equivalent to Creigiau in the Cardiff context. Tramway 1 is complete with a U-shaped layout running between the northeast and northwest of the Nice urban area via the business and tourist centre.
Tramway 2 will run east-west parallel to the Promenade des Anglais from the equivalent of Cardiff Gate/St Mellons to beyond Cote d’Azur Airport (in Cardiff the distance to Culverhouse Cross), a journey of 26 minutes. Trams will operate at 25kph on reserved streets with no other traffic allowed and at 70kph in tunnels, providing much shorter journey times than by car. The route is expected to remove 20% of traffic from the Promenade des Anglais and carry 140,000 passengers daily with a consequent reduction in car pollution.
Environmental concern for Nice’s fine historic buildings led to a tunnel under the stylish Avenue Victor Hugo and battery operation with no unsightly wires or poles in Place Massena and Place Garibaldi – two popular tourist locations.
Out of town park-and-ride sites on Tramway 1 include AutoRoute 8 (the M4 at J34/Cardiff Gate). T2 will have four sites with 1,250 spaces. High-frequency (under five minutes) new trams operate daily.
Low fares (single trip flat fare €1.50) with discounts for 10 trips daily and season tickets – and they give change. All are dispensed by machines at tram stops (which have real-time information screens) taking cards and cash or by the bus driver. And a new Metropole card will cover all trams, buses and trains in the region.
The three lines will interconnect with SNCF mainline railway stations at Nice Ville (equivalent to Cardiff Central) and suburban stations.
The tramway network capital cost of €700m is shared between the French state, the EU, municipal and regional local authorities (which in France are able to raise a development tax on businesses in advance and after such urban construction) and the airport company, which receive great advantage from the new service.
Tramway 1 high load factors show how it has successfully attracted both tourists and locals.
The mainline commuter network train frequency in Nice is three trains hourly. The South Wales Main Line hourly frequency varies between two and six trains, and on Valley lines to Pontypridd up to six trains at the same times past the hour. Far higher frequencies than the south of France – but the SNCF trains are high-capacity four-car double-deckers.
Following the recent Monaco Grand Prix there were no extra trains to move the 22,000 spectators and visitors in and out of Monaco. Compare this with 21 extra Great Western Inter-City 125 trains operating east from Cardiff and the extra local and English midlands trains moving 60,000 people after the UEFA Champions League final game.
The opportunity for Cardiff to introduce modern trams is an attractive one for the new Metro franchise specification about to be issued to bidders. It would certainly reflect the Cabinet Secretary Ken Skates’ transformational vision.
Transport for Wales (and the minister) should visit the Nice system before deciding. I’d be happy to be their guide.
Stuart Cole CBE is Emeritus Professor of Transport, Wales Transport Research Centre, University of South Wales.