Parties lay transport WALES IN MOTION Pledges on table – but the devil’s in the detail
PROFESSOR STUART COLE
ONLY the Conservatives, Labour and Plaid Cymru can aim for government in tomorrow’s Senedd election, and so will be able to make transport decisions – though many of the Green Party’s policies fit well with those of Labour and Plaid Cymru.
Labour’s rail infrastructure credentials are its £1.5bn investment in new trains and Valley Lines electrification to be completed by 2023.
All parties want a fairer share of rail investment for Wales, though only Plaid and Labour press specifically for north and south Wales main line electrification. Plaid (and Labour, though not in its manifesto) is pressing for the Scottish model, transferring rail infrastructure responsibility with a commensurate increase in block grant. All parties aspire to better-quality rail links between north Wales and north-west England and Liverpool/Manchester airports.
HM Treasury’s new investment rules ought to find Plaid Cymru’s rail feasibility studies attractive. Candidates include the Bangor/Aberystwyth to Carmarthen scheme, but with a route via Aberaeron and the underinvested Heart of Wales line, a cross–border route should, ironically, also be considered as part of the Union Connectivity Review.
Only the Conservatives support an additional hourly train service between Carmarthen and Cardiff cutting 20 minutes off that journey – surely a vote-winner in west Wales marginal seats.
Achieving good road communica
tions is common to all, but they differ widely on what should be done.
Plaid Cymru, in supporting the Labour government’s infrastructure plan, agrees to the expensive funding of the Heads of the Valleys road. How it plans to do that and cut the roads budget to finance public transport is unclear.
The Conservatives continue to promote a new £1.8bn M4 around Newport despite expected traffic flow reductions post-Covid and most benefits accruing to adjacent English counties rather than Valley communities. Conversely, UK (replacing EU) funding of the Conservatives’ £2bn road investment programme is not guaranteed, and would leave their A55 and A40 proposals with a mere £200m. Labour and Plaid Cymru both support the Burns report proposals for a public transport solution to congestion.
The parties all fail to propose funding to eliminate road potholes – the bane of drivers, cyclists and insurance companies.
The development of a high-quality, affordable, integrated public transport system advocated by this column, by Plaid Cymru and Labour has seen little progress over 40 years.
Labour and Plaid Cymru support extending TrawsCymru, the national bus network, to provide integrated services for settlements with no rail connection; and enacting bus franchising is not unrealistic given the current bus industry financial position. Both propose varying levels of free bus/rail travel which Estonia, a country smaller than Wales, introduced fully in 2019. Ironically both parties propose forms of regional transport authorities – which the Labour government abolished seven years ago. Even the Conservatives want joined-up public transport – but only seemingly in north Wales.
Welsh ports have not reached their full potential and none are free ports under the UK Government’s plan. Plaid Cymru wants responsibility for ports regulation and maritime strategy transferred to the Welsh Government, with a private-public sector investment programme for each port. A welcome £20m ports development fund is the Conservative contribution. However, no party shows how the Celtic Sea’s Welsh ports will match the numbers of cruise ships visiting Ireland and Scotland with resulting economic benefit from tourism spending.
Cardiff Airport, nationalised by a previous Labour government, receives a detailed recovery plan from Plaid Cymru, partly through devolving Air Passenger Duty (so reducing Cardiff-based air fares), though its carbon offset taxation scheme will increase air travel costs and may reduce passenger demand. The Conservatives would privatise the airport, though a potential buyer (without being allowed to build houses on the 40-acre estate) is difficult to envisage.
Green is the colour of the parties’ policies, if not the party in power. Labour seeks to encourage/promote cycling, walking and public transport use. Plaid Cymru has a target to persuade 50% of car-users to switch to public transport (30%), walking (10%) and cycling (10%), which is unrealistic outside Cardiff, Newport and Swansea. The Conservatives propose 20,000 car-charging points.
Plaid Cymru wants devolved road and fuel taxes it can then replace with an eco-levy based on mileage travelled. Labour and Plaid Cymru propose reducing the 30mph urban speed limit to 20mph; the Conservatives do not, perhaps because they recognise increased freight/bus transport operator costs.
Overall, there is little difference in transport policy between Labour and Plaid Cymru, who go further than the Conservatives in detail and the extent of using legislation to achieve their ends.
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