These Metro plans can be even more ambitious
He came up with the vision for the south Wales Metro project and here Professor Mark Barry gives his verdict on the plans from KeolisAmey to deliver the £738m rail electrificaiton scheme – as well as ways the network can be further improved
So now we know more about the next phase of the south Wales Metro, it really will be a radically improved and innovative network for the core Valley Lines from Merthyr, Rhymney, Treherbert, Aberdare and Coryton to Cardiff city centre, Penarth and Barry.
Under KeolisAmey’s plans we will see four trains per hour from all points on the network periphery and many more on the core routes into Cardiff from Pontypridd, Barry and Caerphilly.
And I think the two trains per hour specified for the Coryton Line will be quickly revised up to four and the City Line will probably require a little further infrastructure work to get to four.
It will exploit new types of heavy rail (HR) rolling stock serving the Vale of Glamorgan Line to Rhymney and on-street capability via a tram-train light rail vehicle (LRV) on routes north of Cardiff via Pontypridd and to Cardiff Bay – delivering faster, more frequent services and capacity.
And flexible extendibility is built in via the tram-train capability and an initial tranche of new stations delivers greater accessibility.
The wider commitment to invest to upgrade every station across Wales is also impressive.
The new metro stations will be at Gabalfa, Crwys Road, Loudon Square, the Flourish opposite the Millennium Centre in Cardiff and at Nantgarw (near Coleg Y Cymoedd and the planned DWP office).
This is a significant increase in public transport accessibility. I also expect to see more details in due course of how Ebbw Vale will be reconnected to Newport.
In due course I expect a few more stations to be added to this list.
For example, at Pontypridd bus station, Herbert Street (taking pressure off Cardiff Central) and Wedal Road (Cardiff ), originally set out in the Metro Impact Study commissioned by Welsh Government in 2013.
I’d like to see the additional station works expanded and accelerated so they are all delivered by 2024.
So now let’s get behind Welsh Government, Transport for Wales (who have done a remarkable job in running this procurement) and KeolisAmey to build, deliver and operate this next phase of the South Wales Metro – it is vital that this essential foundation is completed successfully.
There will be some finessing of the scheme and some adjustment during detailed design and implementation to tease out the maximum benefits.
However, if all goes well it will be operating in the early to mid-2020s; pretty much along the lines of the vision I originally developed, with the support of the Cardiff Business Partnership and published by the Institute of Welsh Affairs, in 2011, followed up in further studies in 2012/13 and developed later with Welsh Government.
I am pleased with how this is all turning out. Going further back, it really delivers Professor Hilary Marquand’s vision for an electrified commuter rail network across the Valleys he published in South Wales Needs a Plan, back in 1936!
Nor am I forgetting the work of groups like Sewta and other local authority proposals going back to the work to reopen lines in Mid and South Glamorgan in the 1980s and later the Ebbw Valley and Vale of Glamorgan in the 2000s.
In Cardiff, Metro presents a unique opportunity to develop a new integrated public transport grid across the city.
Some further metro rail measures and new cross-city express bus services east to west which interchange with the metro lines to Pontypridd at Gabalfa and the Rhymney line at Wedal Road station (which also needs to be added to the scheme) will provide a real alternative to car use and the resulting congestion and air quality impacts.
In doing so, new public transport network planning capability, commercial arrangements and perhaps some bus franchising may be needed.
An on-street extension from the Flourish, across the docks to tidal siding freight line via Splott/Tremorfa onto the main line at Rover Way opens up huge development potential in the south of Cardiff and provides a means to route some future tram-train services from, say, Ebbw Vale to the city centre via Cardiff Bay, freeing up capacity at Cardiff Central.
Similarly, the completion of the link between the bay line and Cardiff Central, probably to connect to the City Line, also presents a valuable extension opportunity linked with urban realm improvements all the way from central to Cardiff Bay along the current bay line and Lloyd George Avenue.
There is also the prospect of completing the Cardiff Circle Line at Radyr.
The extendibility capability via tram-train is not just about on-street operations down into Cardiff Bay and the city centre, but extending the metro through the new Plasdwr housing in north west Cardiff onto Creigiau and Talbot Green.
It’s also about reimagining the whole of the region and using this new transport capability to enable a more equitable spread of economic activity across south-east Wales.
This also means developing a statutory and much more strategic capacity to undertake and use planning in south-east Wales on a regional basis.
Given the application of tramtrains on much of the core Valleys through Pontypridd, then those involved in local development planning, economic development, community regeneration, housing, etc. should be tasked to explore ways better connectivity can help to sustainably grow the regional economy.
■ Mark Barry is professor of practice in connectivity at Cardiff University’ School of Geography and Planning. This article is based on his own ideas or those already in the public domain and not those of Transport for Wales, the Welsh Government or any other organisation.