Friday 21 July 2017

Swansea isn't the end of the line

A promise by a politician is rarely worth the paper on which it often isn’t even written, and there is no reason why a promise to electrify a railway should be any different.  Breaking the promise to electrify the line to Swansea will not exactly enhance the reputation of those who’ve done it, but in all fairness, they are currently hard at work breaking much bigger promises than that one.
I’d give them almost full marks for inventiveness in selling this as an advantage because we won’t have the disruption of all the engineering works in carrying out the upgrade, but I do wonder where that line of argument will lead.  It could easily become an argument for not doing a lot of other things.  There is, after all, quite a lot of disruption involved in building hospitals, schools, roads …
They are right in arguing that it will give us better more modern rolling stock with more seats more rapidly than waiting for electrification all the way to Swansea with electric-only trains, and they’re also right in arguing that it won’t make any difference to journey times between Cardiff and Swansea because the restriction there is the track, not the source of power or the rolling stock.  That does, though, rather gloss over the fact that the new trains will be heavier, more expensive to buy and run, and less environmentally friendly than the all-electric ones we could have had if the project had gone ahead.  I’m not particularly convinced either about some of the arguments put forward about this being a huge blow to the image of Swansea in trying to attract investment.  I would have thought that the quality and reliability of the transportation would be more important than the source of power.
There is another advantage (in the sense of it being an ill-wind which has none) to the decision taken yesterday which few seem to have even realised let alone commented on, and that is its impact on those of us who live even further west of Swansea (although I entirely understand that people in London might not be fully aware of our existence).  That advantage is that bi-modal trains don’t have to terminate their journey at Swansea; like the existing aged beasts they will be perfectly capable of travelling past the end of what seems to be regarded as civilised Wales and out into the sticks where some of us insist on residing. 
One of my concerns from the outset has been that the electrification project would take away the few through trains which we currently enjoy.  As a short term expedient that might have been something up with which we might have had to put, but the problem with the electrification project has long been that it has been seen as a single one-off project rather than part of a longer term vision to electrify the whole network.  We still need that longer term vision of an all-electric railway; all that’s really changed is that the section of line from Cardiff to Swansea has been added to that part of the network for which that vision is required.  I hope that those who so far seem to be mostly interested in making political capital out of the decision will also take that on board and not restrict their arguments to one short stretch of line.

3 comments:

Cibwr said...

One of my concerns is that it shows a lack of vision, the long term plan should be the electrification of the whole network, starting with electrification to the ports of Pembroke Dock, Fishguard and Holyhead. Ideally we should start planning and implementing a Swansea Bay metro system to, and that would best be an electrified system. Again its shows a paucity of imagination and planning and a belief that investing in infrastructure is "throwing away" public money.

Brychan said...

Is what you are suggesting is that a West Wales intercity express using the more compact 5-car Hitachi 800 configurations running…

London Paddington.
Bristol Parkway (avoids Temple Meads)
Cardiff Parkway (new station at St Mellons)
Swansea Parkway (new station on the Llansamlet loop)
Carmarthen (new station on the Johnstown loop)
Fishguard Harbour
Triangulate Whitland (new loop).
Pembroke Dock
Carmarthen (new station on the Johnstown loop)
Swansea Parkway (new station on the Llansamlet loop)
Cardiff Parkway (new station at St Mellons)
Bristol Parkway (avoids Temple Meads)
London Paddington.

The current Swansea and Carmarthen stations are not actually on the GWML which are dead end spurs. The exist Carmarthen would be re-named Carmarthen Town, and Swansea renamed Swansea Central ? To do that, you’d have to Brexit the EU and re-introduce the ‘duty free ferry booze cruises’ to boost loadings.

Anonymous said...

Those that have caught one of the last trainsm London will be familiar with this story. Train running a few minutes late. Last week it was a brief delay at Port Talbot, resulted in Swansea connection being missed. Last train goes to Carmarthen only. Frantic phone calls to places like Haverfordwest to find family members to drive to Carmarthen to collect relatives and friends. For the others there is then the wait for taxis and mini buses for the forward connection. Shortage of railway staff so some people are worried they will be left overnight in Carmarthen.Locals can be heard explaining there will be cabs etc to take them on. In some cases young people and more vulnerable travellers being told by same locals, " don't worry I'll show you where to wait", or "I'll wait with you".

Three recent examples,

Student returning from visit for interview for a college place in England being reasured by a woman pensioners that it would be fine.

Wedding party with elderly relatives, not wanting to be split up as they travel on to meet their prospective in-laws to be for the first time.

The two young men away from home for the first time going to start new jobs in Pembrokeshire. Had been quite loud and excited about the whole experience (but not unpleasantly loud) suddenly very quietly asking a family group what would be happening, would there really be a taxi and how much it would cost? Again comforting words. Later seen sheepishly following the family as they were taken to the entrance to the station and handed over to a railway employee to wait for a taxi.

A few things come to mind. What impression does this give of west Wales? How much does this regularly cost and what portion of the price of my ticket goes on paying for the cabs or minibuses? What are the economic costs to our local economy having such a weak and fragile train system?