Metro to Llantrisant proposed

TWO members of the Welsh Senate (Senedd) launched a report advocating a light rail link between Cardiff and Llantrisant on June 10. Mark Drakeford MS and Mick Antoniw MS commissioned the report from specialist transport consultancy Cogitamus to highlight the economic and social benefits to the Cardiff West and Pontypridd constituencies of investing initially in a rapid bus/tram system, as a steppingstone to a full Metro rail link between Llantrisant and the Welsh capital.

The report highlights the environmental benefits of providing affordable transport in order to reduce reliance on cars. The two Members of Senedd agree that this is one of the major policy challenges of the current time. The report also quantifies the growth in housing in the two neighbouring constituencies and the impact further development will have on people’s ability to travel from Taff Ely to Cardiff and vice versa.

Mr Antoniw highlighted the success of Cardiff’s existing Metro programme and suggested that the time was now right to identify areas where the introduction of the next phase of Metro services will have the greatest economic and environmental benefit. He added that one of the most exciting aspects of this project is the potential to bring back into use miles of disused railway lines which run from the centre of Cardiff, out through the north-west of the city and into Taff

Ely to Llantrisant. These lines have been protected from development and the availability of these purpose-built corridors means that construction costs can be constrained and lines reinstated more quickly.