It’s become all too common for Mid Wales to be neglected by the Welsh Government whenever rail investment is announced. This week’s announcement from the Prime Minister and First Minister, endorsing Transport for Wales’ long-term rail vision, is more of the same.
Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe Liberal Democrats have recently commented on this, highlighting that of the confirmed £445 million out of a possible £14 billion from the 2025 Spending Review settlement, seven new stations have been announced: six situated between Cardiff and Newport, and one in North Wales. Mid Wales, meanwhile, will receive no new stations or any additional investment for infrastructure upgrades, route resilience or signalling improvements.
I live in Neath Port Talbot, within reach of Swansea and Cardiff, so my area tends to get a fair share of Senedd funding. But I have family in Mid Wales, and our lives could not be more different. While I have access to hospitals on my doorstep, my family in Mid Wales has to travel to Hereford. While I have a plethora of public transport options, my family in Mid Wales is restricted to very infrequent buses and, as highlighted above, a rail service which its own government is prone to neglecting.
David Chadwick MP and Jane Dodds MS have raised these issues time and again, to little to no response from the Welsh and UK governments. After a while, you stop wondering whether Mid Wales was forgotten and start suspecting it was simply never included.
The fundamental problem here is not that South East Wales is getting investment. It should. Cardiff and Newport are economic engines, and better rail in the corridor is good for jobs, housing, and commuting. The problem is the way this is packaged and prioritised; it is presented as a Wales-wide “generational” shift, while the confirmed commitments tell a much narrower story. When the Prime Minister can list seven stations and six of them sit in one corridor, you are not looking at a national connectivity strategy; you are looking at a commuter belt strategy with a press release attached.
Devolution is meant to be more than a change of letterhead. If we are serious about devolved accountability, then Welsh transport policy must be judged by whether it connects Wales, not merely upgrading the parts that already have the most political and economic gravity. A Wales-first rail settlement cannot be Cardiff-first by default, with rural Wales asked to clap politely from the platform. That is how you end up with a country where opportunity is geographically rationed, and where people are repeatedly told that their communities are too far away to be worth planning around.
There is also a deeper issue of honesty. The UK Government’s own wording is that the “up to £14 billion” figure is the estimated cost of a pipeline, with future allocations to be decided at future Spending Reviews. In other words, it is not a funded package; it is a menu. The money actually allocated is the aforementioned £445 million settlement, and even that is spread across different pots and time horizons. If you want to call something “generational”, fine, but then do not be surprised when people in Mid Wales hear “generational” and translate it as “not for you”.
A pipeline is not the same thing as a plan, and a plan is not the same thing as a service you can rely on.
* Jack Meredith is a member of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and an active campaigner and canvasser with Swansea and Gower Liberal Democrats. His writing focuses on democratic reform, social justice, trade unionism, economic democracy, and the institutional foundations of effective government. He has written for the Fabians, Lib Dem Voice, Liberator, Nation Cymru, Bylines Cymru, and Centre Think Tank.
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11 Comments
I don’t live in Wales but I am aware that following the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, Wales was left without a connection between the north and south of the country that didn’t have to go into England. This could be changed if the Carmarthen-Aberystwyth line were reopened. I am surprised that this has not been a priority.
The issue here is that the thing trains are good at is carrying large numbers of people who want to travel along the same corridor. If you don’t have that, then trains are not viable. That’s why the investment is going to where most people live – along the South Wales line. You could justify some additional investment in the North – there’s certainly scope for additional stations and infrastructure to provide more frequent services between Llandudno and Chester, and I think it would be reasonable to demand additional focus on that area. But Carmarthen-Aberystwyth would basically be throwing money away. The fact that you have to go through England to get from Cardiff to the North Coast might look politically awkward but economically it makes sense: It’s taking the railway where enough people live to justify it.
If you want some investment in mid Wales railways, your best bet would be making Shrewsbury-Aberystwyth clockface hourly and perhaps improving speeds along that line and the Pwllheli line.
“trains are good at is carrying large numbers of people who want to travel along the same corridor. If you don’t have that, then trains are not viable.”
Might small buses be viable in more rural areas? Including community-run bus services?
e.g. as per https://www.wealdlink.co.uk/
@ Simon,
“The issue here is that the thing trains are good at is carrying large numbers of people who want to travel along the same corridor. If you don’t have that, then trains are not viable. ”
Well they could still be more viable than they are. Although some rail lines are being re-opened at great expense, it’s probably too much to hope that most of the rail lines which should have been kept open in the Beeching era, or at least preserved as far as possible for future reuse, ever will be.
So how to make the best of a bad job? We could try the idea of ‘virtual’ rail lines which are actually just bus services. The idea is that they are linked up and synchronised with the railway network. They could be used for part of rail journey with just one ticket being require for the whole journey.
So, as most tickets are bought online now, we’d type in our starting and destination points and out would come the necessary information for our journey. We’d then go ahead and purchase just the one ticket as we normally do.
The extra revenue should help keep bus services to be more viable too.
“We could try the idea of ‘virtual’ rail lines which are actually just bus services. The idea is that they are linked up and synchronised with the railway network. They could be used for part of rail journey with just one ticket being require for the whole journey. ”
Seconded, maybe using community buses to help fill in the gaps.
When I lived in South Wales I remember debating the proposed Beeching cuts and I argued that some lines should remain open. However, on discovering that the average passenger per train going in or out of Brecon was 0.5, (yes half a person) no way could I argue against cutting lines in mid Wales.
Running buses as ‘virtual’ rail lines where there are missing rail links between towns and the traffic isn’t likely to be sufficient to justify (re)building a new railway is a pretty good idea in the short term. I think in the long term it’s a bit of a halfway house towards what’s really needed: Proper integration of fares plus timetable coordination for all buses and trains generally.
Never mind, Jack! On 7th May (Just ten weeks away) Welsh Labour will get the response they so richly deserve.
The problem with any suggestion of “restoring” the Carmarthen-Aberystwyth rail link is that the line of the former track has not been safeguarded, and houses have been built on it. So while it’s a great idea in principle, in practice it’s not feasible.
I’m actually reading this on the train to Machynlleth from Birmingham, a journey I have made quite a few times in past 3 years. I have been fortunate on the whole, but regular users tell me a story of poor reliability, due to a combination of frequent flooding and poor maintenance. On Friday I need to get from Machynlleth to Merthyr Tydfil. The quickest route is train to Newtown and then the T4 bus. Incredibly, that bus journey is 55 stops and takes almost 3 hours. And although I can work on a train, so the slow speeds are not such an issue, that is impossible on a bus. As others have pointed out, new (or “reopened”) railways in mid Wales are not practical, but a network of express bus services surely would be a viable option if they link with rail services.
For me the priorities in mid Wales should focus on reliability and integration. I actually think TfW are not at all bad compared to the English TOCs, and (going somewhat off topic!) whilst I understand that people here want to decry Welsh Labour, I think their record in many areas is a good one. The Future Generations Act, and the revised schools curriculum (led of course by our own Kirsty Williams), are innovations that England should follow. Wales suffers from high public service costs due to its geography and both urban and rural deprivation, which make stats on health and education outcomes difficult to compare to England.
As usual, thank you all for your contributions, it is greatly appreciated 🙂