Putting Wales back on the Rails
Rhys David examines transport links to Cardiff.
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Let us suppose for one moment Cardiff had won European Capital of
Culture 2008. The venues are ready, the exhibitions and events have
been organised, the city has been spruced up and enough publicity
has been generated to create interest across Europe.
What, however, would the culture lover in Hamburg, Lyon, Turin and
Seville discover when he or she visited their travel agent? Mainly,
that compared with what he might find in trying to reach a similarly-sized
conurbation in mainland Europe, Cardiff is actually quite hard to
get to in the sort of time span many travellers now expect.
“You can fly to Amsterdam or maybe Paris,” the agent might
advise, “and then change to a flight to Cardiff but services
are limited. Or, you could fly to Heathrow and catch the Underground
and Docklands Light Railway to City Airport and fly from there. Otherwise,
you will need the RailAir bus to Reading and a train from there to
Cardiff or you could take the Heathrow Express to Paddington and pick
up the train there. It will take a time and cost a bit but it should
be OK.”
In these circumstances all but the most intrepid culture enthusiast
might have decided a weekend in Prague, Barcelona or even Tallinn
might be a bit more manageable in terms of logistics. Whereas Liverpool
(the eventual winner of the capital of culture prize) can probably
hope for a reasonable number of visitors from overseas - even if many
of them do have to fly in to rival Manchester – Cardiff would
probably have been much more dependent on UK visitors.
Cardiff’s relatively poor international links are of course
determined by geography and economics. There is not a lot we can do
about the city’s proximity to London, which makes it difficult
or even impossible for air operators to sustain profitable air services
to Heathrow and its wide range of international links in competition
with road or rail. Nor do we have the business hinterland of company
headquarters, high technology industry or international trade links
that would make a wide network of air services to destinations outside
the UK feasible.
The position has been improving since bmibaby stepped in last year
to offer a range of low-cost services to various European destinations
and to take up some of the slack left by British Airways’ pull-out
from Rhoose. Cardiff’s services, like those of many other similarly-sized
cities, are, however, largely leisure-orientated and designed to serve
people starting their journey in Wales rather than travelling here.
They do not bring in many non-British individuals from the cities
currently served who are keen to holiday or take a city break in Wales.
For all these reasons many of the more ambitious schemes for improving
air transport links are likely to remain on the drawing board, including,
for the foreseeable future at any rate, the notion of a Severnside
airport, with or without the benefit of combined trade with the West
of England. In the end market forces will continue to decide the future
provision of air services in Wales. As personal wealth rises and demand
for air travel grows, the range and number of services from Cardiff
will grow but the majority of these will continue to be for leisure
rather than for business purposes.
The situation on the railways is somewhat different and here it could
be argued that the ability to respond to existing market forces is
being denied to south Wales by a number of factors over which we have
no control. A new study by the Institute of Welsh Affairs has shown
that railway services between Cardiff and London (and by implication
to and from points further west as well) are now slower than they
were 15 years ago, even before regular delays are factored in. First
Great Western does a generally good job and services are now much
more frequent than they were in the 1980s. However, other cities elsewhere
in the country are getting more services and faster journey times.
The reason is that the routes to Cardiff (and Bristol) have a much
lower priority in the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) way of thinking
than south east of England commuter services, or the west coast or
east coast main lines. Moreover, south Wales has a lower priority
again than the West of England, as was seen when Virgin’s well-patronised
services to and from south Wales to the Midlands, the north east of
England and Scotland were cut back earlier this year. The answer to
capacity problems on the rail network was: “South Wales passengers
change at Bristol Parkway.”
Where services such as these connecting us to England are concerned
it is probably our fate to have to wait in line for improvements elsewhere
in the network to take place, and potentially far-reaching proposals
have at least been drawn up by FGW for new trains and track, which
should some day rise nearer the top of the SRA’s in-tray. They
are very much medium to long term plans, however.
Yet, we are also stymied when it comes to services within Wales that
do not impact on the rest of the network. Few who have used the services
would deny there are things that need to be done about local services
in south-east Wales, which has a good network of lines left over from
the days of coal. Investment here could help to ease the growing problems
of road congestion in Cardiff and bring jobs in the city closer to
jobseekers in the valleys. Much could be done in south-west Wales,
too.
Yet, as Professor Stuart Cole of the Wales Transport Research Centre
at the University of Glamorgan has pointed out, devolved Wales gets
to exercise less control over its internal rail network than Scotland
or non-devolved Merseyside. Arriva, the new franchisee taking over
the Wales and Borders franchise, will make some minor improvements
to services, but constrained by lack of funds it will still be making
use of hand-me-downs from other parts of the country where real modernisation
is taking place.
The reason is that in Wales the SRA still has control over railways
and decides how money is spent. In Scotland the Scottish Executive
can make the decision whether to use the funds at its disposal to
secure significant improvements in Scottish railway services.
There may now, however, be some light at the end of this particular
tunnel, if remarks made by transport minister, Kim Howells, at the
weekend are acted upon by the Westminster Government, and his comments
certainly need to be vigorously followed up by the Assembly Government
and by AMs and MPs. He sees no barrier to handing control over rail
services in Wales to the National Assembly and to working out sensible
arrangements for services that cross into England – previously
seen as the main obstacle.
Cardiff may have missed out on European Capital of Culture but it
does have another anniversary looming in 2005 – now only 16
months away. It will then be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its
apotheosis from Roman fort, then Norman stronghold, county town and
British city to Welsh capital. Perhaps by then some of the benefits
of Welsh control over Welsh rail needs will be on the horizon or in
some cases even visible to all those visitors (from the rest of Britain
and abroad), who, we are hoping, will come to join Cardiff’s
party To order a copy of the IWA’s soon-to-be-published report
on rail services between Cardiff and London, Capitals United
(price £10) call 029 2057 5511 or e-mail wales@iwa.org.uk
Rhys David is the Development Director of the IWA.
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