Rethink needed for rail policy inWales
THERE is no doubt that Wales has done badly out of rail infrastructure investment – this needs to change.
While huge amounts of public money are being poured into the HS2 project in England, we recently learnt that the electrification of the Great Western mainline will not go as far as Swansea after all.
Anyone who has travelled on the rail networks of other Western European countries will be aware of the significantly greater efficiency and comfort that they offer in comparison with ours.
There is irony in the fact that Arriva Trains Wales is owned by the German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn, which would never expect its passengers in Germany to travel in ATW rolling stock.
The average speed of trains on routes between major British cities, including those in Wales, is also shockingly low.
We agree with Lord Adonis, chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, that there needs to be a new national policy on developing the rail network. This will entail a rigorous assessment of all schemes put forward, including the proposal to reopen the line between Carmarthen and Aberystwyth.
North-south links are poor in Wales and reopening a line that should not have been closed in 1964 would improve connectivity greatly. But there is also merit in improving east-west routes, so there is easier communication between Birmingham and Welsh cities, for example.
The refusal of the UK Government to devolve responsibility for rail infrastructure – and the funds that go with it – to the Welsh Government is unreasonable. If enlightened politicians on this side of the border had not been prepared to put discretionary resources into rail projects, lines like the highly popular Ebbw Vale route would not have been reopened and new stations would not have come into being.
Public transport infrastructure in Britain should be about more than having fast routes to London. If there is to be a genuine realignment of prosperity, it’s essential that smaller cities should have better links between them.
But local, regional transport networks are highly important too. The South East Wales Metro is partly predicated on the basis that large numbers of people living outside Cardiff need to travel to Cardiff for work. That is undoubtedly true. But making other parts of the region more accessible should result in more job opportunities being created in areas outside Cardiff too.
Connectivity – local, regional, national and beyond – is vitally important. But there are many potential options, and a need to prioritise.
Let’s devise a fairer system of evaluating projects and deciding where money is spent. We need to move on from the current arrangements which allow politicians in London to engage in pork barrel politics, whereby particular areas and interest groups are bought off in return for votes. That’s no way to run a transport policy. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2016 was 62.8%