@colour Wolf

Mark Barry posts on here as Mark. We have seen that paper some time ago, as you say lots of good ideas and if the costings are to be believed, its nonsensical to not implement.

Not sure why, but I use a number of "handles"! As an fyi I am expecting/hoping for some +ve news re rail electrification. A HLOS announcement is due from DfT in next 2-3 weeks; not sure of full scope but I am convinced we will get something. The challenge for us in SE Wales is how we maximise the impact of that investment - which for me is to fully develop the Metro plan for delivery in the period 2018 - 2030. Key to this is a Cardiff City Region body with sufficient powers and funding to deliver. Let’s see what the Minister says about city regions in Wales tomorrow!

Mark - excellent work on the metro proposals. Is there a reason (apert from cash) that the Coryton line and City lines can not be connected to form a circle? Even if not used for circular services (to avoid overloading the Queen St-Central section) it would allow Pontypridd line passengers to change at Radyr onto Coryton line??

Mark - I understand about competing for ever decreasing pots of cash, and concentrating on the easy wins first. But if the concept of a circular connection was included in the design, then it could be added at some time in the future for minimum disruption.

Hope this all comes about.

As Mark said the idea of linking the Coryton and City lines to create a "city circle" has been around since at least the 1970s.

The problem with it is that there's not much point to a single-track circle line. To be useful the track would need to be doubled to allow for regular clockwise & anti-clockwise services. That's expensive and not justified by current or projected passenger flows.

Meanwhile a circular service would reduce the train paths available on the City Line for valley services into Cardiff Central - thus increasing pressure on the already over-stretched Queen Street corridor.

infrastructure development

here is a little bit of infrastructure for us, helping Wales connect with the outside world.

Now I'm not one for getting party political, but this government - in one stroke - has done more for Wales' infrastructure than the previous administration has done in 13 years

Will this mean direct services from Cardiff central to Heathrow or stopping at every stop along the GWML or changing at Reading?

I have been banging the drum for Heathrow rail Access for a number of years and presented evidence to the Westminster transport committe on this and HSR last year.

Re electrification....watch out for news on Monday...

Looks like your vision is taking place

Where is the money going to come from to develop the metro plan once electrification is done in I think its 2018?

Thank you sir I asked that question earlier in this thread and none of the "experts" on here answered When I have children im going to moan to them how useless our rail network used to be (much like 68 my year old Dad tells me how he used to walk miles and miles to school in Merthyr in the 50s) and then ill say you should thank Mark Barry for this lovely shiny Metro we have

Just came here to post that exact link too Cracking news, even at quarter to 2 on a Saturday morning!

Cracking news, just the case of sorting out Cardiff Airport with spur, the M4 around Newport and cost of using the Severn Bridge and I'll call it quits

Seriously good news though. It's important we aren't left behind.

this is excellent new. just to recap, in 13 years of Labour during the largest economic boom in history, Carwyn the Caring and President Tony offered Wales nothing, whereas within two years of Coalition rule, the evil Tories give us this.

yet some people think Labour are good for Wales and the Tories are not. You couldn't make it up.

I wonder what reason WG will back track from developing the Metro now Westminster have come up with the goods.

The +ve decision we are expecting is really a joint Cardiff/London effort. The DfT in London could not have said yes without there being a very strong busines case. The WG and its senior officials ( with expert support) have done an excellent job in preparing a very compelling busienss case.

However, there still seems to be a Q over whether the scheme will include Ebbw Vale/Maesteg. I think these sections and the associated costs are small enough ultimately for the WG to pick up if need be; perhaps in a VLE phase 2 or a Metro Phase 1!

I wasn't serious with my experts comment! But yes so far this coalition has done more for transport in Wales in two years than Labour did in 13 im afraid facts are facts.

Jantra - it'll take more than a few electrified railway lines to convince me the Tories care much about Wales. They clearly believe that all the regions' economic problems will be solved by better transport links to our great capital on the Thames. For instance Cameron absurdly claiming that HS2 would end the North South divide - in about 20 years or something.

The buisness case for HS2 is much less sound than electrification in South Wales but if you think the Tories dont care about Wales then you must surely concede Labour care even less?

I'm not really qualified to comment. Though it's worth remembering that rail electrification was initially planned under Labour before the coalition put it on hold.

We tend to assume that different governments are poles apart but the truth they often carry on the same sorts schemes that the previous lot were planning - particularly with something like the railways.

If this gets delivered the Tories will start to compete with Labour in Welsh Politics.
Tata Port Talbot will pay about 200 million in carbon Tax, we pay our fair share of taxes in south Wales, let no one tell you otherwise.
This scheme improves the long term prospects for south Wales significantly.
We still need more M roads!!!!!!!!

With it looking increasingly likely that Labour will win the next general election, I very much doubt the Tories are going to start rivalling them in Wales.

The only way I could imagine that happening is if Labour collapsed and haemorraged voters to Plaid and LDs, so that you ended up with a real 4 way split.

Its going to be another hung parliament with Labour as the biggest party then we will have weak Ed Milipede as prime minister. All his union mates will make demands for pay rises and more days off and he will try and keep them in check resulting in lots of strike then people in the UK will finally wake up that tax and spend statism doesn't get you to El Dorado and the Tory pary will get in on a majority on a more right wing platform after the gov falls led by someone like Michael Gove à la 1979 all over again you must think im Jantra's son or something.

We really should have a dedicated politics thread.

According to Walesonline full electrification to Swansea plus all Valley Lines incl. Ebbw Vale, Maesteg and Vale of Glamorgan.

If true - blimey. I don't know if this is a result of a perfect storm - transport secretary loving rail, effective lobbying from south Wales, infrastructure needing updating anyway etc etc - who cares. It must be good news for us especially coupled with the Heathrow rail link. And even if it doesn't put as at an advantage against other UK regions at least it means we don't fall further behind.

One has to wonder exactly what advances in Welsh infrastructure did the Labour UK government make during the period 1997-2009? Thats a rhetorical question and one that doesn't require a 3 pager from Jantra thank you very much...........

Karl

Far be it from me to blether on about politics as I prefer for the facts to speak for themselves. I think this is a positive step and one we all knew was coming thanks to certain folk keeping us (reasonably well) informed.

Given this is due to start in 2014 I hope the GWR line and Valley lines are started in the first rounds. The reason is due to political capital. Whatever peoples's opinions i'm not against a left wing Labour government if we are in a truly multi party system. Thus we need the conservatives to be making in roads into the Welsh political system. Having the threat of being removed from office should then improve Welsh Labour's performance. Having a political party that can be elected offering a differnet point of view can only be a good thing.

i am not usggesting that this will undo years of (illogical) hatred of the Conservatives in the South Wales Valleys - but all they need is a decent PR machine pointing out that 77k Welsh people never worked at all under Labour or that in 2 years they delivered far more infrastructure than Labour did in 13....

but some people really cannot see the wood for the trees.

This is indeed great news all round. Like Barden, I was starting to worry when the Midland line electrification was being trailed as the main plank of the announcement but thankfully that fear was unfounded.

Hats off to all those who worked on getting this project through to the decision makers' table, and indeed to those in power who have given it the green light.

Now let's get it started before we change our minds,delay it for a couple of years because the public finances are worse than we thought or Labour get voted back in!

This is all excellent news - while it was widely leaked that Swansea & Valleys lines would be juiced up, I was pleasantly surprised to see Maesteg, Ebbw Valley & VoG lines getting the treatment as well.

Lets hope it all gets built on schedule and the Metro plans become a reality.

Cue Monty Python....what have the Romans (Conservatives) ever done for us?

Brilliant news. Hopefully the city region will get a boost from this and we can start to implement the valleys metro idea. Da iawn.