After looking at some of the blunders and missed opportunities when it comes to transport, it’s time for the “good news” – strategies and policies that the Welsh and UK governments have successfully pursued over the years.
There’ll be a break of a few weeks before the next part, so you can go through the previous pieces to catch up here:
This is a big – admittedly contentious – claim, but it does have some merit.
While Wales doesn’t have a brilliant track record in delivering major infrastructure projects on time and within budgets (Part III), most of the ones that do make it to the end often justify the expenditure.
If you want examples, passenger numbers of the Vale of Glamorgan and Ebbw Vale lines massively exceeded expectations after they were re-opened to passenger traffic in 2005 and 2008 respectively, meaning they provided bang for buck.
There are, of course, examples of projects that fell far short of expectations. These include mainly council-led bus-based park-and-ride sites, infamous “one-offs” like the Ebbw Vale funicular/pedestrian lift or over-engineered junctions. In the grand scheme of things though, the amount spent on them is small fry.
Look to England and Scotland and there are plenty of examples of (perhaps debatable) white elephants such as Stratford and Ebbsfleet International stations, Edinburgh Gateway station, serious problems with Edinburgh trams, the Cambridge guided busway and the M6 toll. Even the Cardiff Airport purchase is insignificant compared to some of these.
There’s certainly an argument that it’s better to focus time and resources on public transport for its own sake; it’s part of the reason why “nation building” north-south links are often high up the list of priorities amongst nationalists (I’m perhaps a rare example of someone for whom it isn’t).
Though it does suggest that the assessments used to judge the viability of transport projects in Wales (such as the WelTAG system) do work and are perhaps a bit more robust than equivalent models used elsewhere in the UK.
There’s another strong case that A465 dualling belongs on the “white elephant” list because it wouldn’t be approved now. Though it’s likely to be the last road project of its scale in Wales and it’s an upgrade of an existing transport corridor that’s being used as expected. There have also been projects proposed in the past, or continue to be proposed, that may have ended up being our big white elephant: Severnside Airport, Cardiff ULTRA pod network, the M4 Newport bypass, the Flintshire “red route”, reopening the Aberystwyth-Carmarthen railway to name but a few.
Go onto any local Facebook page and many people don’t like the idea of spending any money on cycling and pedestrian facilities either.
It could be the case that projects don’t leave the drawing board due to a lack of capital funding compared to England and Scotland. Or, in the case of rail projects, not being deemed to be of high enough importance (rightly or wrongly) or not hitting economic/value for money benchmarks.Â
More generally, transport money is often spent where it’s most effective in Wales. If you tout a transport project and it doesn’t get built or make it beyond a detailed business case, then there may be good reasons as to why.
