‘Proposed metro train service would be an embarrassment’

APROPOSED Metro rail service between Morriston and Swansea via Neath would be an “embarrassment”, according to a retired railway manager who lives in Swansea.

A report for the Welsh Government considered many options for rail improvements in south-west Wales and found the biggest benefits would come from investing £131m in a new service between Pontarddulais and Swansea via Neath, with new stations at Pontlliw, Felindre, Morriston, Llandarcy, Winch Wen and Landore.

The government’s consultants, Capita, found that the service would deliver £2.90 of benefits for every £1 of investment.

“Annual operating costs for this option are expected to be covered by direct income from ticket sales,” says Capita’s report. It estimates Morriston station, about a mile from the hospital, would be used by 340,000 passengers a year, and Landore station 410,000.

An additional benefit would be a quadrupling of the frequency of trains at the existing Llansamlet and Skewen stations.

However, John Davies, who was British Rail’s manager for Wales in the 1980s and early 1990s, said: “The whole thing is a farce. Far from showing an operating profit, I believe it will have a major operating loss and it will be an embarrassment.

“I can think of lots of other ways to spend that money in south-west Wales which would have a really big benefit for travellers and enable rail to compete better with the M4 and A48.”

He said the recent study had been framed around where railways currently exist, rather than where there is travel demand.

A frequent train service between Pontarddulais and Swansea would be quicker via Llanelli. Trying to cater for north-south travel demand with trains on the east-west Swansea District Line through Morriston would strike people as counter-intuitive, said Mr Davies.

“From Morriston, why would you go on a train which takes 40 minutes to Swansea when the journey takes 10 minutes by car or 20 minutes by bus?”

He said the train would take 40 minutes even with a short new track south of Neath – included in the report’s cost calculations – to avoid trains having to reverse at Briton Ferry.

“The train isn’t going to go where people want to go. Morriston station’s only hope is for people going to Port Talbot and beyond, including to Cardiff, but that wasn’t part of the study.”

Trains from Morriston to Swansea would also compete with cycling: “Swansea is quite well ahead with active travel. This study should have looked at active travel, buses and possibly light rail.”

He said the new service would not cover its operating costs. “There’s reckoned to be only one Wales and Borders route that covers its costs – the route from Chester to Manchester. Even busy routes like the Marches Line [Newport to Crewe] don’t quite cover their costs. Local routes have no hope.”

Rail subsidy was justified for social reasons, as the new service between Ebbw Vale and Cardiff had shown since 2008, but there were limits to the funding available, said Mr Davies.

He also warned that some of the six new stations for the Pontarddulais to Swansea service could be more expensive than the £20m station currently under construction on almost level ground at Reston, Scotland.

“Apart from the cost of building the station, you’ve got the cost of building access to it.

“At Morriston, I don’t see where you can put a station which isn’t going to be a massive engineering project because the line is in a cutting and goes straight out on to an embankment and viaduct. I don’t think there’s any hope of a park-andride car park there.

“At Llandarcy there’s a site for a station but it’s going to be peripheral to the new village. Pontlliw station would be peripheral to the village.”

He was surprised the study’s remit had excluded additional services along the main line to serve Briton Ferry, Baglan and Port Talbot.

He said the money would be better spent on accelerating train services along the Pembroke Dock line, primarily by upgrading three level crossings, and providing hourly trains on the Pembroke Dock and Milford Haven lines, serving Tenby and Haverfordwest.

The consultants found that options for additional services on both of these lines represented poor or low value for money, but they identified preferred options for both.

They recommended further study of the Pontarddulais to Swansea service and half-hourly trains between Burry Port and Swansea.

“The preliminary cost estimates, both capital and revenue, will be further developed and refined as any recommended options are progressed in greater detail,” they said.