It’s now fifteen years since I first set out my ideas for a Cardiff Capital Region Metro (or South Wales Metro) and just over 13 since my report, “A Metro for Wales Capital City Region” was published with the Cardiff Business Partnership and Institute of Welsh Affairs. It was in Autumn 2015 that FM Carwyn Jones formally launched the project at Pontypridd station.
That heretical idea is now in the final stages of construction and implementation. By late 2025 or early 2026, the transformation of the Core Valley Lines (CVL) should be complete. By then we will see shiny new tram trains running up and down the valleys serving Merthyr, Treherbert and Aberdare with 4tph, and up to 12tph running through Pontypridd toward Cardiff. Journey times will be reduced, and capacity & service frequency doubled.
The current programme also provides the foundation for the necessary further expansion through to the late 2020s and into the 2030s ( eg Cardiff Crossrail) given our Net Zero Wales obligations require a major mode shift to Public Transport (PT) by 2040.
The challenge for the wider Cardiff Capital Region now, is how to leverage this enormous investment in public transit to catalyse wider economy development and regeneration. We raised some of these questions and opportunities in Metro and Me in 2018.
I have spent the last 3 years documenting my journey from 2009 through to October 2024; how I saw the Metro, from its background and regional context, through advocacy and building political support, right up to Transport for Wales actually building and soon to be operating a Metro. That “book” is available on-line by clicking on the link below.
I also set out some of my key learnings on the way: in transport planning, transit-oriented development and our need to reduce car dependency. I also touch upon the dysfunction of the UK rail industry ecosystem vis a vis Wales and equity and lack thereof, in rail enhancement funding by UK Government over decades. This Welsh Government led (and Transport for Wales delivered) project is even more remarkable given it is in a “non-devolved” area. Rail infrastructure in Wales is still (Oct 2024) the responsibility of the UK Government at Westminster. I also set out what we still need to do up to 2040 and beyond.
This book is one history of the development and advocacy of the South Wales / Cardiff Capital Region Metro project, and I know there will be many others who may have different views and recollections. Nonetheless I wanted to make my story available to those with an interest in how big projects happen in Wales (and probably other places). I think the book may also be of use to people and organisations in other places that need a Metro. Drop me a line if you want any advice!
Finally, aside from Welsh Government and Transport for Wales, many people will need a pat on the back for their efforts and commitment for delivering perhaps Wales’s most important transport project since the establishment of a Welsh Government in the late 1990s. So, I have also tried to name as many as possible of those I interacted with over the last 15 years – it’s over 400 people already! – to acknowledge the huge collective effort required to realise my original idea.
Version 1.0 of “How to build a Metro” is now on-line and available as a PDF free to all. However, I have and will continue to incur costs, so I am gratefully accepting voluntary contributions to cover the development, set up and ongoing admin costs of the book/website via a “buy me a coffee”.
Enjoy
Mark Barry, October 2024
this is all well and good but the East of Cardiff still suffers, the fact that this hasn’t been addressed at all during the establishment, building and implementation phases of the SW Metro is a significant failure of the policy makers.
Not really…if you take the time to read you will see the failings in Cardiff East are not about WG policy but the failings of the UK rail industry and constitution al ecosystem and the lack of devolved powers at WG/Senedd.
As professor Barry has previously said, it’s primarily about funding and the prevailing funding model. There are plans to provide suburban rail services to the East of Cardiff and either side of Newport along with incorporating the Cardiff Bay “spur” that currently runs only via Queen Street in future phases of the South Wales Metro project. With regard to the Cardiff Parkway/St Mellons station, I suspect that the more general hope was that this would be up and running much sooner, as it was PFI-driven, predicated on the development of the proposed new adjacent business park in St Mellons – indeed, I am given to understand that the company set up to develop that business park have already applied to the Department of Transport and Network Rail’s New Stations Fund 2, which considers bids from around the UK to open new stations.
The 2 main outstanding issues to be resolved in order to realise the dream of a Cardiff St Mellons/Parkway station would seem to be:
1. The City & County of Cardiff council’s inability to provide planning permission, which by correlation is blocking access to key funding;
2. ecological issues.
(not sure this is the place for what follows, so apologies in advance, but here goes anyway)
I can contribute little or nothing to either of these points in this specific context.
However, on a wider Welsh transport issue, please cast your minds back to all the soul-searching that went on over the M4 relief road. Aside from the sheer cost, one of the main rocks that the proposal foundered on was that of ecological issues, also relating to the Gwent levels. As an alternative solution, I wrote to the then-minister for transport issues in Wales, saying that the main and obvious problem with the daily queues around Newport was the bottleneck caused by the Bryn Glas tunnels. Tunnelling technology has come a long way since the Bryn Glass tunnels were bored in the 1960s. In my correspondence, I drew attention to the project in the city of Limerick, Ireland, to tunnel under the River Shannon in order to create a new road underpass. Interestingly, the tunnel was of not dissimilar length to that which might be required to resolve the issues in and around Newport. What was even more interesting was that the project had recently (2010) been completed – at the time of my correspondence, so could be cost-compared with some degree of accuracy against the proposed M4 relief road – at a cost of – 450,000,000 Euro. At the time
this represented approximately 40% of the cost of the proposed Gwent levels option – and with far less impact on the ecological environment of the levels. Even allowing for David Cameron’s intransigence over financial support from the Treasury, this kind of “value-added” saving could have been a game-changer.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, and to paraphrase the immortal words of Major Dennis Bloodknock, “I never heard from him again”.
While accessing the necessary funding in order to develop and improve transport in Wales lies somewhere between “difficult” and “blatantly unfair”, I’m left with the feeling that the politicians sometimes can’t see the wood for the trees.
Will we see any of the £385 million from the truncated HS2 project trickle across the Severn? I’m not holding my breath, but hope springs eternal.
Richard
Just to note. Parkway planning is held up with Welsh Gov not Cardiff Council. #The Uk Gov rail underspend in Wales runs into the £Bns and is way more than the £385M. WG have an analysis on their own website from 2020 which sets it out in detail.
Also worth reading the chapter in “How to build a Metro” on cars and induced demand. Widening the Bryn Glas tunnel wont fix congestion, it will just generate more traffic (look at the David Metz paper re the M25 widening I referenced)
Thank you for your reply to my post, Professor Barry. I apologise to all readers, and to the City & County of Csrdiff council. I am sincerely grateful to you for correcting me. I am also grateful to you for directing me towards the further reading materials, and some of the likely outcomes of given scenarios.
Perhaps I’m being completely unrealistic, but my vision for the bottleneck at the Bryn Glas tunnels, based on the Limerick project, was to provide an additional, new, subterranean bore (under the River Usk and North of the existing M4 route), rather than a widening of the existing tunnels, particularly given the troubled history that accompanied their construction. The Bryn Glas tunnels would remain as a supplementary route – in the same way that the original Severn bridge has been retained as a contingency. However, I do acknowledge the point about overall road capacity, with the M25 being a prime example, analogous to “Parkinson’s Law” relating to the working day and how we find a variety of ways to fill it.
Interestingly, I am writing this reply in the immediate wake (hopefully more a joyous occasion!) of the first Labour budget for 14 years. Of course, budgets mean nothing unless the government of the day delivers on its proclamations. However, given the cohesive and considered (what a refreshing change from previous recent “performances”) nature of the statement, and the admission that the incoming government was already making efforts to unpick the HS2 funding con, dare we hope that some serious and meaningful money for transport issues may be heading to Wales?
I am so pleased to have found you and looking forward to reading your work. As a user and union rep I am obsessed with how poor public transport is at the moment in South Wales and how it blights lives in many ways. I am convinced that efficient public transport can transform people’s lives for the better.
Mark – I have previously heard you say that you proposed the name ‘Cardiff Crossrail’ to try and capture the public imagination and you certainly achieved that.
Can I suggest a similar branding for the SWML improvements/Burns Stations…..possibly Metro East or maybe Gwent Metro – which would also include Ebbw Valley line, Caerphilly to Newport, Abergaveny services etc.