THE ILLUSION OF PROGRESS…

Ken Skates, Labour in Wales’ Transport Minister has written to the UK Government's Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, setting out a strong argument to build four new stations in Wales. Ken’s note calls on Grant Shapps to invest in the Wales and Borders rail network through the UK Government’s Restoring Your Railways fund.

A report undertaken by Transport for Wales for the Transport Minister Ken Skates has identified four locations for new stations. The developments, which would be paid for under the New Stations Fund 3, would be ready by early 2024.

The 4 stations are:

• Deeside Parkway, on the Borderlands Line in North Wales
• Carno, on the Cambrian Mainline in Mid Wales
• St Clears on the Great Western Mainline in West Wales
• Ely Mill on the City Line in Cardiff, in South Wales

Ken Skates also said that he took the opportunity to reiterate the case strongly for plans which included the Aberystwyth – Carmarthen and Bangor – Caernarfon re-openings.

Clearly on a roll, the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales Ken Skates also stated that the stations would improve access to the rail network across Wales.

The Transport Minister also invited the Transport Secretary to discuss further priorities for rail investment, including new stations at Greenfield and Magor. 

He also wants to use  the New Ideas Fund, to restore passenger services on the line between Gaerwen and Amlwch on Anglesey and wants to use the Accelerating Existing Proposals fund to restore the line and services to Abertillery in South Wales.

No while I don’t have any problems with the proposed new stations or re-opened railway lines - its worth exploring the fact that with 11% of the UK’s railways within Cymru / Wales we have no control of any rail funding or any real input into Network Rails priorities. 

However, we have been here before - back on the 28th August 2019  - perhaps for the Labour in Wales that day was a good day to bury bad news. 

Some even further back story, in April 2017, a list of 12 potential new and revived railway station sites was made public which would have gone a long way towards adding connectively to various parts of our country’s poor railway network and potentially reducing road congestion. 

On the 28th August 2019, it was revealed that the original list of 12 has now become  4  - when another list of 4 was published - perhaps Ken is really good with lists - rather than actual action. Or perhaps in the absence of actually doing anything positive an old press release is re-issued to create the illusion of progress.

Now this was not a definitive list, and there are no guarantees that these 4 prospective railway stations will eventually be built or re-opened as they have to go on for yet further assessment in Westminster. 

The lucky 4 prospective railway stations then were: 

• Ely Mill/Victoria Park in Cardiff
• St Clears in Carmarthenshire
• Deeside Industrial Park/Northern Gateway
• Carno in Powys

What’s interesting is the railway stations which did not made it through the initial Westminster assessment  - they were:

• Llanwern
• Newport Road/Rover Way
• St Mellons
• Cockett
• Landore
• North Wrexham
• South Wrexham
• Llangefni

It is important to remember that control of our railway infrastructure investment remains not devolved to Cymru / Wales - a decision made by the then Labour Government in Westminster.  It still remains with the UK Westminster Government, all the Welsh Labour Government does is draw up a short list of suggestions.

Regardless of whether it was then of now, all potential stations go through three stages of assessment, not in Wales but in Westminster / Whitehall:

• The first looks at Welsh Transport Appraisal Guidance criteria and consideration of the Wellbeing and Future Generations Act.
• The second looks at the strength of the financial and economic case for a new station and advice from Network Rail on deliverability.
• The third is "development and assessment of the highest priorities".

To help narrow the list down, station demand forecasts were drawn up which are designed to give a likely viability of proposed stations. This may actually sound a more scientific and rational process than it is. 

It is worth remembering that the anticipated number of passengers who were expected to travel on the reopened Ebbw Vale line to Cardiff in 12 months travelled on the new service in the first 4 months. 

A word of warning - please don’t hold your breath in anticipation of any regular train service from Ebbw Vale to Newport - we may yet have quite along wait. 

The 7,000 + householders who will end up living on the Llanwern site will have no option but to use their cars or the bus service to get to and from work. 

Not pushing for a railway station at Llanwern continues to directly impact on the congestion in an around Newport, on the SDR and the existing M4. 

Then, as now, any proposal will only be successful with "a sound business case" and the assessment "increases the ability of station proposals to be in a position to benefit from funding calls" - and that decision will be made in Westminster rather than here in Cymru / Wales. 

Back then a Welsh Government spokesman said: "The stations that scored the highest in the assessment will now be taken forward. The proposals for the remaining stations will be considered when additional resources become available." I wonder if the same old tired excuse will be rolled out…

It is also worth noting that, then as no doubt now, the process is ongoing and there is no date for any potential reopening of any station. 

Considering that Westminster has been tearing itself apart over BREXIT for the last few years and the Westminster government, now presided over by Boris has other more things to be concerned about.

That said, even with no pandemic, it would be a safe bet that it may be a while before any Westminster government focuses on Cymru / Wales and our national interests. 

Quite simply decisions about railway infrastructure development and spending need to be made here in Cymru / Wales, not in Westminster - as happens in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland - but don’t hold your breath.