Wales 21st century north-south transport links

North-South transport links in twenty-first century Wales are about express trains, hi-tec coaches, safe communities and no increase in road traffic. This is the view set out by Friends of the Earth Cymru in a new report launched today entitled 'Coast to Coast' / O Fôn i Fynwy (From Mon to Monmouth).

The report concludes that investment in state-of-the art public transport services are the most environmentally friendly, socially inclusive and economically beneficial way to develop sustainable (1) transport links between the north and south coasts of Wales and within mid Wales. Express trains would also be significantly quicker and safer than by road.

The main proposals in the report, costing about £60 million are:

• Investment in an express rail service which would reduce Bangor-Cardiff journey times by over half an hour to 3 hours 30 minutes with potential to reduce this by a further 15 minutes if and when funds become available.
• A hourly hi-tec 'Traws Cymru' coach service operating mainly along the A470/A483 in mid Wales calling at Newtown and Llandrindod Wells. The service would run via the A487 to Bangor in the north and to Cardiff in the south.
• Upgrading the unsafest sections of the north-south roads, mainly the narrowest, twistiest and known 'crash-cluster' sites.
• Investment in rail-freight, Local Transport Plans in the communities and other traffic reduction measures.

FOE Cymru say that the Assembly should start up an express rail and a 'Traws Cymru' coach service within a year and both services could well be paying dividends within five years. The Cambrian Way roads (A470/A487/A483) would be upgraded for safety not speed as this would disuade traffic growth, benefit the countryside and be affordable.

Coast to Coast also exposes what FOE Cymru describe as the deeply flawed thinking behind the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) £123 million proposals for the construction of fifty overtaking lanes and bypasses along the north-south A470 and its feeder roads (2). FOE Cymru, together with a Cardiff University road researcher Dr John Hunt (3) have estimated that proposed major road-building plans costing £123 million would reduce north-south drive-times by only 30 minutes before further traffic growth slows journeys down again. The IWA vaguely claims a one hour reduction and does not draw attention to the likely adverse consequences. In any event, the Bangor-Cardiff journey by express train will always likely to be 15 to 30 minutes quicker than by road.

FOE Cymru point out that compared to their package of measures costing £60 million, the IWA's £123 million road-building plan is unaffordable given the size of the Assembly's transport budget and the much more pressing and justified calls on spending.

Neil Crumpton, FOE Cymru transport spokesperson and author of 'Coast to Coast' said:

"The countries that will succeed in the twenty-first century are those that do not exhaust their transport budgets on the self-defeating treadmill of building faster, but never fast enough, road links. State-of-the art public transport services together with low-cost road safety improvements are very clearly the way forward now in Wales."

"This study demonstrates that the Welsh Assembly has an opportunity to develop affordable transport policies which comply with its duty to promote sustainable development."

Copies of Coast to Coast/O Fon i Fynwy are being sent to a wide variety of organisations, politicians, Councils and individuals and to the Babtie consultant's group who are currently carrying out a north-south transport links report for the Assembly.

Notes

1) Currently, there are about 22 million cars (22,115,000) licensed on Britain's roads (DETR Transport Statistics, Great Britain 1999). UK population is about 58 million. Hence car-ownership level is 1 car for every 2.6 people approx. This figure is up from 18 million cars, ten years ago and is forecast to rise 40% by the year 2030. Hence the 2030 UK forecast is 30.96 million cars, approaching 1 car for every 2 UK residents). If global car ownership grew to even just over half that of current UK car-ownership levels (now 1 car for every 2.6 people), there would be approaching 2 billion cars world-wide by 2050 up from about 500 million now. However, greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion, energy use and vehicle pollution are already a major threat to climate, health, safety, fitness and our children's prosperity. The unthinkable future consequences of such possible global traffic growth requires today's generations to set good examples, tackle car-culture and live sustainably.

2) 'Uniting the Nation Improving the Cambrian Way north-south road links in Wales'. The report estimates that a £63m programme of overtaking lanes and a further £60 million of bypasses plus other upgradings along the A470 and its northern feeder roads (the A487 to Bangor and A483 to Wrexham) would reduce north-south drive times (AT CURRENT TRAFFIC LEVELS) by 1 hour. The effectiveness of the overtaking lanes would degrade if traffic levels increased, and drive times would consequently rise again.

3) Dr J Hunt is a senior lecturer at the School of Engineering, Cardiff University. He has studied the operation of single carriageways and overtaking lanes for 14 years. He has presented papers on single carriageway issues at 6 international conferences. He has audited the overtaking lane computer simulation software that WS Atkins used in the IWA study. He has worked with the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). He is a member of the Institute of Highways and Transportation and the Institute of Civil Engineers.