OUR RAILWAYS

Plaid Cymru supports public ownership of the railway, and so we will continue to seek full and unrestricted control over the awarding of future rail franchises. In the meantime, under the current Westminster legislation, we will investigate alternative models for the next Welsh franchise that deliver as much public control as possible.

The Party of Wales will ensure that dividends and profits are reinvested and redistributed back into Welsh rail services through the most appropriate model that can be implemented. Plaid will work to protect all current routes which start or terminate in Wales as part of the Welsh franchise area. Transport for Wales will specify and procure a rail franchise that the public can be proud of.

The rail operator we establish through this process will:

• provide capacity for expected growth in passenger numbers
• benefit from profits and surpluses being reinvested back into the railway
• adopt one national visual brand
• integrate with bus service timetables, with community rail, the new proposed light rail networks and with active travel (walking and cycling)
• introduce measures to make rail fares more affordable, including a simplified fare structure with the option of an annual fee, paid via the National Smart Card, to cover all journeys throughout Wales
• have passenger and workforce representatives in its governance structure
• have a duty to improve communication with passengers through social media and station announcements.

 A Plaid Cymru government will endeavour to secure new trains for our country and are committed to investigating the different options for rolling stock ownership, including owning our own trains. We will secure improvements for the safety of the public on the railway network by improving lighting, CCTV and disabled access to stations, and consulting on an alcohol ban on late-night trains.

At present, rail infrastructure is currently reserved to Westminster, but a Plaid Cymru Government would actively work towards changing this and would aim to electrify all major rail lines by 2034. We will complete the planned electrification of the South Wales Valley Lines. The next line to be electrified should be the North Wales Coast Line.

Plaid will identify locations for new stations across the network.  and will  continue to invest in developing existing rail stations as hubs for wider commercial development and urban regeneration, including retail and co-working/office space.

The Party of Wales will also look to re-open railway lines across Wales to create new links between communities. As part of this Plaid will commission a full feasibility study on the re-opening of the Carmarthen to Aberystwyth line together with a second phase linking Bangor, Caernarfon and Afon Wen near Pwllheli. Other potential lines such as Gaerwen to Amlwch, and the Amman Valley to Swansea will be studied for viability. A full report will be prepared on railway re-openings and new lines, setting the tone for a long-term expansion of the Welsh railway,

We need the urgent development of a South-East Metro, which will be sympathetic to existing communities. The aim of the Metro is to simplify travel across the region and provide regeneration in some of Wales’ most underdeveloped communities. We will work with local authorities and business to ensure that jobs are created in Valleys communities and that commuting can go in both directions. We want to see a similarly innovative and integrated transport system for the Swansea city region, and for north Wales and will publish these proposals within a year of assuming office.

A prioritised number of rail schemes will be included in the new National Transport Plan that we will consult upon and publish in our first year of government. Plaid Cymru will produce an exciting vision of a Welsh National Railway service, uniting the nation, north and south, country and city, community-to-community.

THE EBBW VALE CONNECTION

The Ebbw Vale connection...?

The news that Network Rail has revealed that the long-awaited passenger rail line between Ebbw Vale and Newport may be up and running by 2017 or 2018 should be welcomed. With the signaling work in and around Newport completed, with planned passing loops and sections of double track extra trains could run with three trains an hour, with one every hour to Newport providing the funding is committed.

The Ebbw Vale connection could enable extra services to the timetable to be run to and from Abergavenny giving rail passengers extra services and play a key role in building a strong regional rail service in the south east. Since the Ebbw railway line reopened in 2008 the new rail service failed to connect to Newport and the rest of the south east. 

A variety of lame excuses offered have barely concealed that fact that the Welsh Government has been dragging its feet. Ironically periodic upgrades to track and signals in and around the Cardiff area meant that services occasionally start and terminate at Newport.

If we don't ask for it we won't get it!

With the much missed Ebbw Vales connection it may be possible to run extra serves between Newport and Chepstow to serve the stations at Caldicot and Severn Tunnel junction not to mention future stations at Magor and Llanwern. Similar extra services to could the line from Abergavenny to Newport, calling at Pontypool and Cwmbran and eventually the proposed station at Caerleon.

The failure to connect the Ebbw vale line to Newport meant that commuters who live in the communities in the Ebbw valley were unable to travel directly to Newport by train. This prevented them from catching connecting trains to Bristol, Cheltenham, and beyond as travelling to Cardiff in the morning and the evening before travelling to work was never going to be a realistic option.

This was a bad decision that resulted in commuters having little choice but to choose to drive to work. This lack of an easily accessible alternative helped to feed congestion on the M4. Finally by 2017-18 the Ebbw vale link may begin to benefit those commuters who daily travel east to and from work.

HANDBAGS AT 50 YARDS?

I have a small degree of sympathy with the view expressed by the Welsh Government that London should pay for rail electrification projects, as control over Network Rail (in Wales) has not (yet - if you read the Silk Commission report) been devolved to Wales. Now I would qualify that by saying that London (as the senior partner) in the Union should pay for UK wide infrastructure projects, and the electrification of the railway from London to Swansea would tick the box for most people as being a UK infrastructure project.

Rail electrification in the South?

The electrification of the Valley lines into Cardiff, possibly Swansea and hopefully Newport may well be another matter, having not been on the cards when the original electrification projects were planned. It is worth noting at this point that the last New Labour Westminster Government never intended the proposed electrification of the old Great Western line to go beyond Bristol – so much for standing up for Wales. As for electrifying the Valley lines, I would personally suggest getting on with it, it has been calculated that the Welsh Government could pay for that from its own transport budget, even after the Con Dem imposed cuts.

The problem comes from the fact that when it comes to transport infrastructure projects we in Wales literally have one hand tied behind out backs, because, unlike in Scotland, we have no control over transport infrastructure planning. It should be obvious by now that this (and the previous Westminster government) have little more than a passing interest in Wales, let alone any concerns for our national interests.

Handbags at fifty yards?

There is an old diplomatic service / civil service adage about crisis management, which goes along the lines of first you create your crisis, and then you manage it. That said there is more than a distinctly manufactured feel to this latest spat between the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay and the Con Dem coalition government in Westminster. Perhaps rather than a constitutional crisis or even a disagreement about more powers or a clash over point of principal, it may be more of a case of handbags at fifty yards.

The party formerly known as New Labour, when in Westminster government proved to be largely indifferent to Welsh interests, beyond political token gestures. This view can be said to have been backed up by the Welsh MPs voting record on matters of interest to Wales, since their party lost power in Westminster. Sadly this latest spat merely serves to strengthen the illusion that our nominally Welsh Labour government is standing up for Wales, the danger is that this dispute could end up delaying the much needed electrification of the valley lines for a few more years. 

We should have learned by now that we cannot rely on any Westminster Government to deliver for Wales. Let's electrify the Valley lines and the Ebbw Vale line (initially) into Cardiff by using some of the National Assembly's 0.78 billion transport budget. Here  in the South East, we need railway stations at Caerleon and Magor and better facilities for passengers and more stopping services at Severn Tunnel, Chepstow and Abergavenny along with more secure park and ride schemes and better integration with local bus services – it’s time to stop asking and to start demanding that government actually delivers for our country. 

NO AMBITION AND NO VISION!

Politicians and governments are often condemned for their lack of ambition or their lack of the vision thing, but, somewhat more rarely are they condemned for lacking both the vision and the ambition. Yet both the Welsh and UK Governments have displayed a craven lack of ambition and pretty much a complete lack of vision when it comes to developing Wales' railway network.

Both Westminster and Cardiff have failed to take advantage of existing and new EU funding programmes which are available to improve and develop our railways. So rather than seizing the initiative to invest in and improve our railway infrastructure both Governments have sat on their hands and allowed potential funding opportunities to pass them by.

Almost by accident rather than by design, one might think, some of the powers needed to develop and develop our railway system are already possessed by the National Assembly. The Transport (Wales) Act came into effect in February 2006 and gave the National Assembly powers to plan and co-ordinate an integrated transport system, so how much longer do we have to wait to see some vision?”

We need to develop the long term view and invest in our rail services; we need to further develop rail freight and co-ordinate rail and bus services across the whole of Wales and we need to have full control of its transport policy, transport budget and the related planning regulations. There is considerable room for improvement when it comes to the provision and development of our railway services here in Wales.

When the franchise is renewed in 2018 the railways in Wales should be run on a not for dividend profit basis, with all profits accrued being ring fenced and reinvested into our railways. The healthy profits run up during the period when the East Coast mainline serve has been run by the Westminster Government after the collapse of the private franchise shows what could and should be achieved here in Wales.  

THE RIGHT CHOICE?

The sensible choice would be for the Welsh Government to follow Scottish example of freezing off-peak prices, as RPI inflation figures (3.1% in the year to July) threaten another 4.1% increase from January 2014 across Wales. It is worth noting that Trade union leaders and transport experts have called on the Government to follow Scotland’s lead and freeze or limit rises in train fares for passengers.  The Welsh Government’s default position is that fares should only rise by 1% above the July inflation figure. The problem is that while the Labour in Wales administration could choose to freeze or limit the fares increase (this deal has been made every year since 2001 for the Wales and the Borders franchise) this is not set in stone.

A choice: Not for profit or Profit before people?

The Western Mail’s sources revealed yesterday that although Scotland is freezing the cost of off-peak journeys. There is a distinct possibility that hard-pressed Welsh commuters may well end up having to face another 4.1% increase in January 2014, this would be on top of the 4% rise at the start of this year (2013).  In Scotland, the cost peak-rail travel will rise with inflation at 3.1% and the freeze in off-peak travel will cover about 40% of rail journeys. A 4.1% increase in rail fares would increase the cost of an annual commuter route season ticket between Pontypridd and Cardiff from £880 to £916 and between Aberdare and Cardiff from £1,040 to around £1,082.

The current franchise was awarded to Arriva Trains Wales in 2003 and runs for 15 years, and is due to end in 2018. There have been many persistent calls for the rail franchise to be run as a not-for-profit operation – with profits being feed back into the system, rather than vanishing to pay shareholders dividends. The Welsh Government has been considering this option for when the deal ends. Arriva Trains Wales is the only train firm covered by the Welsh Government’s transport remit. Any longer-distance services e.g. Swansea or Cardiff to Paddington, are currently operated by First Great Western, who have their fares regulated by the UK Government Department for Transport. They have stated that rail fares on the routes it controls would increase by an average of 4.1% from January 2013.

To make matters worse the announced rise in rail fares will come take place against a backdrop of squeezed incomes, with average earnings increasing by just 1% and many experiencing pay freezes. There have been calls for the ending the annual inflation-plus fares rise, with them being replaced by a new formula, RPI minus 1% from 2015.  The rail fare rises which will arrive in January’s rise will be the sixth time in seven years that rail fares have outstripped wages. It has been calculated that between 2008 and next January rail fares will have risen some 40%, compared with a 15% increase in average earnings.

It should also be noted that the cost of some season tickets may rise by 9% as some routes are not subject to regulation under franchise agreements. All these rail fare increases will take place against projections of a 2.4% increase in average earnings next year. The TUC has suggested that since the railways were privatised, they have cost taxpayers about £1.2 billion pounds a year and this with what has been described as “minimal” investment in trains and stations.  

The Department for Transport continues to insist that the UK Westminster Government is investing record amounts in the railways to help deliver economic growth and boost passenger capacity. Additionally the Association of Train Operating Companies has also insisted that only a small proportion of income goes on profits, with most going on staff costs and investment. They also say that railway companies only make modest profits with 3p from every pound earned going towards profit, 17p goes towards staff costs, and 48p goes towards maintaining and improving infrastructure (including track and signalling).

At the end of the day, this is good news for rail operators and shareholders but bad news for hard-pressed long suffering rail commuters who are having to hand over even more of their pay packets for poor-quality services. We are where we are because regulated fares, including peak-time journeys, have been set at RPI inflation plus 1% since 2004 because successive Governments (both Labour and Con Dem) have been trying to shift the burden of paying for the railways from taxpayers to rail passengers.

It is Somewhat ironic that the persistent attempts of successive Westminster governments to wash their collective hands of their responsibilities for rail transport infrastructure come at a time when annual passenger journey numbers have increased from 750 million to 1.5 billion. The day that the rail franchise in our country is run on a not for profit basis, with profits being reinvested into the business, cannot come soon enough.

THE SYSTEM NEVER FAILS ONLY INDIVIDUALS...

We live in interesting times, public transport wise at least, with the distinct possibility that the rail franchise system operating system, rather than the trains themselves, is ceasing to operate. The UK Transport secretary has instructed preparations be made for Directly Operated Railways, which is a government owned company, to undertake the minimum preparatory measures necessary to operate train services in the event of a failure to agree the terms of an interim agreement with the existing Franchise operator for the Great Western rail franchise.

This announcement follows the news that the competition to run the Great Western rail franchise between south Wales and London is being scrapped. This follows advice from the Chair of Eurostar Richard Brown who has been investigating the collapse of the West Coast Main Line franchise deal. Back in March (2012) FirstGroup, National Express, Stagecoach, and Arriva (part of Deutsche Bahn) were all short-listed for the Great Western franchise.

The UK Transport Secretary (Patrick McLoughlin) is looking to negotiate an interim franchise of at least two years with current operator FirstGroup. In a Parliamentary statement, the UK Transport Secretary announced that he would begin "a more fundamental review of the franchise proposition, recognising that this is a large and complex franchise which will need to manage service delivery whilst the route is electrified and new rolling stock is introduced."

A parliamentary report into the collapse of the West Coast Main line franchise deal, was not unanimous, several committee members markedly choose not to blame government ministers. The report which scrutinised the scrapping of the £5 billion pound franchise revealed that the decision cost around £50 million pounds of public money.

The Department for Transport has chosen to blame human error for the fiasco and admitting that "Independent experts concluded the collapse of the West Coast franchise programme was caused by a number of failures including inadequate planning and weak governance structure, but not systematic failings in the department.” Despite this the DfT has chosen resume the competition for the Essex Thameside (15 years), Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise (7 years), while suspending the completion for the Great Western franchise.

The collapse of the West Coast Main Line franchise deal which MPs said was the result of "irresponsible decisions" and "major failures" on the part of the DfT and the civil service people may wonder whether the rail franchise system is fit for purpose. Interestingly enough back in July 2009, the then New Labour government stepped in to run a failing private rail franchise - the East Coast Rail Service - which was a polite way to effectively nationalise it, because National Express was in difficulty. National Express also ran the Stanstead Express, East Anglia and c2c - but walked away from running the East Coast Service (which it operated as standalone company, NXEC) yet got to carry on running those bits of the network it could squeeze a profit from?

All of this nonsense is carried on at our expense. Clearly the rail franchise system is no longer working as envisaged when the railways were broken up privatised. It’s time to do something different and to run our railways on a not-for-distributable-profit basis, so that profits would be ring fenced for reinvestment in rail services rather than pumping up the profits and the dividends.

BY WAY OF COMPARISON...

In Scotland, Rail transport is seen as being a vital component of Scotland’s success, with improvements to the rail infrastructure being seen as important to helping to supporting economic growth, strengthening connections and providing sustainable alternatives to road and air travel. Here in Wales, if might as well be an afterthought.

The SNP Government has invested record levels in rail – opening 2 new passenger lines and 7 new stations; it has provided 38 new trains and increased train services by 10%. Since 2004 rail freight traffic has grown substantially and passenger numbers have increased by 30%.

At the moment, rail services in the UK are provided through a flawed (in my opinion) private sector model. The Scottish rail network is however, entirely funded by the Scottish government and Scottish Ministers, and despite this infrastructure of rail remains a reserved matter.

The SNP Government has several times written (as recently as February and May of this year) to UK Ministers, making clear that the Scottish Government could achieve better outcomes for Scottish passengers if Scotland had overall responsibility for rail. The UK Westminster Government has chosen not to respond to the repeated approaches from the SNP Government.

Last week the Scottish Government announced a £5 billion programme of investment in Scotland's railways (between 2014 and 2019), which will support the delivery of franchised passenger services and enable Network Rail to operate, maintain and enhance the network. The programme will also continue to deliver the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) and the Borders Railway project.

Here in Wales... the Labour in Wales Government will...hmm, argh, yes - the defining silence speaks volumes does it not. The only thing that the Labour in Wales Government has tried to do in the last year is to try to link the valleys electrification project with plans to electrify the main line all the way from London (Severn Tunnel) to Swansea.

This is of course is one way of avoiding having to do anything. Little else has been suggested or hinted at, the people of the Ebbw Valley and Newport may have to wait a long time before the final bit of the Ebbw Vale line to Newport is approved, let alone gets a start date.

HERE WE GO AGAIN?

News that the Westminster Government is preparing to save billions of pounds from public spending on the railways. The McNulty review (last year) recommended that running costs should be cut by one third to bring them into line with other European rail networks, may make many people wonder as to whether or not this is a case of here we go again.

McNulty also recommended that ministers should conduct a full review of fares policy and structures, and aim to move towards a system that is seen to be less complex and more equitable. He also said that this would aid the management of peak demand and the more efficient matching of demand with capacity. The devil will no doubt be in the detail, but, no amount of spin can hide the fact that rail privatisation was a  disaster and a chronically underfunded British Rail was broken up into different competitive contradictory rail companies, which much plundering and disposal of assets along the way.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) fears that we could be talking about the loss of as many as 12,000 jobs, the wholesale closure of countless ticket offices and the creation of hundreds of unmanned station around the fragmented network . Rather than putting their hands up and recognising that rail privatisation failed (New Labour also failed to do this) the Con Dems will try to reduce state involvement by enlarging the private sectors share.

Ironically, despite the failed privatisation, our railways are currently booming, as a partial result of high fuel costs, which have driven car users back onto the rails. At the moment taxpayers (but not necessarily some Conservative party donors) pay around 40% of the rail costs. In January 2012, we saw the usual annual rail ticket price rises, when the average cost of regulated fares, such as season tickets, rose by some 6%.

To be honest, if the UK government wanted to cut the costs of running our railways, then they could do at a stroke by removing them from the control of private companies, who are more concerned with shareholders dividends and profit that providing a decent service to rail customers. Transferring the rail franchise to not for profit operations would eliminate the profiteering that has bled money from the system, cut waste and reduce fragmentation.

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL...

The study commissioned by SEWTA (South East Wales Transport Alliance) amongst other things has recommended that extra trains should run (every two hours) on the line from Newport to Abergavenny, not to mention that Pontypool and New Inn station be developed (with park and ride facilities) accessed from the A4042. This along with the proposed (and much needed) new station at Caerleon and better car parking and bus links at Abergavenny and Cwmbran should be warmly welcomed.

The SEWTA Regional Transport Plan was approved by the Minister for Economy and Transport in January 2010 and following submission of a capital programme for 2010/11 implementation began in April 2010. SEWTA has produced proposals for the development of stations at Crumlin and Pye Corner stations (which would include bus stops and bike parking). The study of the Abergavenny line suggests that proposed improvements may result in an extra 168,000 new rail trips, something that will reduce car use, cut congestion and pollution.

The recent report builds on previous work, back in March 2010, SEWTA recommended on the line from Abergavenny via Newport to Cardiff, SEWTA has already proposed a new stations at St Mellons, and called for more frequent stopping services at Pontypool and New Inn. On the line from Chepstow via Newport to Cardiff, SEWTA has proposed new stations at Llanwern and Coedkernew, and an improved and more frequent services at Chepstow, Caldicot and Severn Tunnel Junction.

The SEWTA reports are well researched and well structured, and should have made a significant contribution to the debate, now is the time for action. Let's get it done...