This has been a period where I have been lucky enough to work in multiple roles, which have enabled me to further the case for more rail investment in Wales and to communicate and try to progress the wider opportunities presented by Metro.
In this chapter I cover:
- 7.1 Context for my ongoing independent work
- 7.2 Professor of Practice in Connectivity
- 7.3 An idea for a Swansea Bay Metro in 2017
- 7.4 The Rail Network in Wales – The Case for Investment 2018-19
- 7.5 Making a noise about rail investment in Wales
- 7.6 Cardiff Council, Cardiff Crossrail & Western Gateway
- 7.7 Helping TfW from 2020 to 2024
- References
7.1 Context for my ongoing independent work
Outside of my formal work between 2016-2108 supporting MTRs bid as part of the Wales and Borders Franchise procurement process, I also had a range of other roles and activities which have continued right through to the present day.
In April 2016 I started a part time role (which I still have) as Professor of Practice in Connectivity at Cardiff University’s School of Geography and Planning. Over the period 2018-2024 I have also supported Cardiff Council, The Cardiff Capital Region, Western Gateway and from 2020-24 had a part time advisory role at Transport for Wales. Inevitably there is cross over between all of these activities, so I have always been open with those I am working with to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.
In all I have done and still am trying to do, my aim is to help bring forward the best projects and especially those that are best able to deliver our Net Zero Wales (NZW) mode shift targets and support/enable local economic development and regeneration. This work has also led me into discussions related to planning, transit-oriented development, regional/local governance, regeneration, economic development and road pricing.
In my various roles post Metro procurement and working with different organisations, I have arrived at my own personal objectives (which shape how I have approached my work since 2018) which are:
- To help bring forward a range of strategic public transport projects across Wales commensurate with our decarbonisation obligations – and to help improve and enhance the South Wales Metro (or Cardiff Capital Region Metro as I prefer to call it, and how it was first described back in 2010-14) (See 15.5 Cardiff, the Cardiff Capital Region and Crossrail)
- To pursue any means to secure more funding for public transport in Wales (capex and opex) – and specifically to try and address the rail funding shortfall in Wales resulting from the current dysfunctional constitutional status of rail infrastructure in Wales – which I first raised in my 2011 report (See The Rail Industry, Wales and HS2)
- Over this period, I also became much more cognisant of our need to reduce car dependency and the enormous negative externalities of that dependency (See The Climate Emergency and car dependency)
- To help communicate and address the failings of our planning systems and resulting low density car dependant sprawl, and in so doing make the case for Transit Oriented Development and densification and do so in a way that facilitates and enables local economic development and regeneration (See Why we need Transit Oriented Development (TOD)).
7.2 Professor of Practice in Connectivity
In parallel with my work with MTR (which was part time) in 2016 I took up a part time appointment at Cardiff University as Professor of Practice in Connectivity at The School of Geography and Planning. This role, to be clear, is distinct from the more traditional academic professorial role. The Professor of Practice role is a sort of interface and non-academic role sitting between the research and education function of the school and the outside world – especially related, in my case, to the practice of transport planning and major projects like the Metro.
The role also presents me the opportunity to run student seminars in the Spring and Autumn terms, support student projects and deal with lots of one-to-one Metro questions. I do get a lot of enjoyment running these seminars and lectures and specifically explain how you can’t rely on transport planning purity to secure funding for a project; this is when I introduce a brief section on Machiavelli.
These student seminars are generally “guest” lectures on courses run by my hard-pressed academic colleague who seem to be timetabled within an inch of their lives. Over the last few years, these have included Dimitris Potoglou, Neil Harris, Brian Webb, Oleg Golubchikov, Francesca Sartorio, Scott Orford, Andrea Frank, Nastaran Peimani, Hesam Kamalipour, Andrew Williams and Justin Spinney amongst others. It seems to me that the spectre of 1920s scientific management has reared its head in UK Higher Education. Not sure the diminution of the goodwill that has resulted was part of the plan, and not something that can be easily rectified. It seems to me that we have “commoditised” too much of HE activity and lost sight to an extent, of its core function, that being high quality research and education. It should never be about volume of foreign students attending.
With my Cardiff University hat on, I also speak at and/or chair conferences, plan and run events as well as introducing colleagues to those in the industry and government. This independent platform also allows me to share views, opinions and ideas publicly ( at conferences and via press, TV, radio), as well as being able to engage politicians at both the Senedd and Westminster.
In so doing, I have continued to make the case for rail investment, reduction in car dependency and Transit Oriented Development (TOD). The events have included: A Future of Towns Conference in Doncaster in September 2018, an Urban Transport Group (How can transport help towns thrive) in Batley in May 2019 and a Smart Mobility Symposium in Bielefeld in March 2020 (just before Covid) to which I travelled by train.
The decision on the M4 relief road also drew some further blogs[1] from me and again some TV/Radio appearances, including a number of interviews with Sarah Dickins at various locations along the M4 for BBC Wales in May 2019. Back to Cardiff and I have written at length re the Metro, and lack thereof in parts of the Cardiff[2] and the treatment of the bay lines, Bute Street and Lloyd Geroge Avenue, the history of the Butetown community. I’ve reviewed the papers for Radio Wales Sunday Supplement whilst raising the issue of guest cycle parking at the new BBC HQ in Cardiff. I was also pleased to support Dimitris Potoglou as he hosted the UKs Universities Transport Study Group 2023[3] conference at the School of Geography and Planning.
Despite the above activities and the specific events set out below, I think that Cardiff University struggles a little with the role of Professor of Practice and how/where it fits in its overall corporate ecosystem. Nonetheless I am grateful for the role and opportunity as it is in this capacity I have written this book and opine more generally on transport and politics.
What Metro Might Do
One of the first initiatives I kicked off whilst at Cardiff University was the “What Might Metro Do?” event[4]. Much appreciation to Jayne Coleman and Lucy Forrester who did much of the administration and organisation for that event. Given I expected the Metro to happen, I was getting more concerned that the wider benefits and opportunities of the project were identified and exploited. That initial daylong event in 2016 was well attended by planning, development and regeneration officers and professionals. As a group we also drafted a wide range of potential research questions that fellow academics could/should consider – these are still relevant today. This subject matter was to becomes a recurring theme over the next few years and manifest in my many blogs and articles on subjects including Transit Oriented Development (TOD)[5], the Bay Line[6] and Lloyd George Avenue and car dependency[7]. A summary of the day was captured in a fantastic illustration by Laura Sorvala Figure 79, who I have engaged for a number of events since to illustrate proceedings.
Figure 79 Illustration by Laura Sorvala of the “What Metro Might Do?” event
Metro and Me
Another similar but much larger and public facing event, “Metro and Me[8]” was undertaken in October 2018. This was organized with the help of Capital Law (and noting the support of Chris Nott), Arup (Ben Pritchard), IWA, CCR, Freshwater and many others. We secured a wide range of speakers/presenters including Mark Drakeford, Huw David and Christina Rees as well as senior officials from Transport for Wales. The event was expertly chaired by Geraint Talfan Davies and over 300 attendees engaged in discussions on Metro, planning, land use, culture, regeneration, green infrastructure, etc. All attendees were issued with a publication that included a range of essays related to the Metro and the Cardiff Capital Region. This is still a relevant read today.
I am planning a repeat and update of this event with Capital Law, Arup, Transport for Wales and others sometime in 2025. This is not to repeat an event just for the sake of it. It is to raise the profile of perhaps the more important questions we must address in the Cardiff Region if we are to fully exploit the opportunities presented by the Metro. It’s not just more frequent and higher capacity public transport which is its primary objective. We must look at the secondary and tertiary objectives re: economic development, regeneration and carbon reduction. This will by necessity cover planning, high-street regeneration, housing, car dependency, funding, governance, culture, community engagement, etc. This is where more work is needed.
Figure 80 Laura Sorvala illustration of “Metro and Me” in Oct 2018
Cardiff University GEOPL Applied Research
One area within my remit at Cardiff University I feel has been a struggle, is in trying to align research activities, especially applied research to my area of interest – transport and planning, and especially the Metro in the Cardiff Capital Region. This £1Bn plus project presents a unique opportunity for a comprehensive longitudinal research programme to monitor the impact on the Cardiff Capital Region on a whole range of measures: economic, social, cultural, developmental, well-being, health, carbon emissions, TOD, etc aside from the more obvious mobility impacts.
However, it is clear to me the way academic departments are organised and incentivised is less than optimal if you want to apply the huge capacity the university has to the kind of applied research questions the Metro presents. Yes, there were and still are many tactical interactions and engagement with TfW and WG. However, the big prize for me is a £MM long term longitudinal research project to actually “watch what happens” to the CCR as the Metro is implemented and operated (and expanded) over the next 10-15 years.
It’s not too late…I suspect £10-15M over 10 years should go a long way.
7.3 An idea for a Swansea Bay Metro in 2017
It was in 2017, whilst still working on the MTR bid, that I first penned some ideas re: a Swansea Metro Figure 116 (which caused some consternation at TfW Procurement HQ) that would eventually be developed via the 2018/19 Case for Investment and later by TfW’s Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro Programme.
It seemed to me that Swansea Bay had become the poor relation as regards rail investment in Wales, despite the fact that the Swansea/Neath urban area has a population of well over 350k. Not quite the nearly 1 million catchment population of the Core Valley Lines in/around Cardiff, but more than sufficient and dense enough to support high quality urban mass transit (See 12.6 Transport modes). Yet the Swansea area doesn’t even have a dedicated local commuter rail service. Instead, places like Skewen and Llansamlet depend on longer distance services having to stop on a fairly infrequent and not very useful basis.
The key for me was making better use of the Swansea District Line (SDL), which was and still is, is grossly underutilised. This would require the introduction of some new infrastructure (a curve or connection) to allow SDL services to directly serve both Neath and Swansea High Street. The proposals would also serve some of the major population centres and development locations in the city region. I penned few words, secured some press coverage and captured the imagination of many in Swansea.
In particular, the idea was taken up enthusiastically by residents of the Swansea High Street Tech Hub (Matt Warren and Paul Harwood) Figure 82 and by Rob Stewart Leader of Swansea Council. However, as I mentioned later in Metro and the media it did ruffle a few feathers in Neath in respect of my proposals for the South Wales Main Line (SWML). Lee Waters MS also picked up on the idea and invited me to speak at event at Llanelly House in December 2017 Figure 81. I wrote a few blogs on this subject[9] over that period and by 2019 my Swansea Metro took on a form more palatable in Neath and so no longer included the new straight mainline alignment along the coast Figure 83.
Since 2019, the proposals have been developed further by TfW under Ben George’s leadership and presents an ambitious and credible project for the Swansea Bay area[10] Figure 84. I also doff my cap to earlier proposals including the likes of the Swansea “nine lines” project. My current proposals (based upon the large body of formal work undertaken) are set out in 15.6 Swansea Bay and west Wales.
Figure 81 Mark Barry Swansea Metro 2017 Llanelly House
Figure 82 Mark Barry Swansea Metro 2017 Swansea Tech Hub
Figure 83 Mark Barry 2019 illustration of a potential “Swansea Metro”
Figure 84 TfW’s Swansea Bay Metro proposals 2022
7.4 The Rail Network in Wales – The Case for Investment 2018-19
It was in my capacity as “Professor of Practice in Connectivity” at Cardiff University, that I was formally engaged in 2018 by Welsh Government and Minister Ken Skates, to undertake, The Case for Investment in Wales Rail Network[11]. I think this study was in part precipitated by my nascent proposal for a Swansea Metro and the widespread support it secured. After all Wales was and is, more than the South Wales Metro.
This work was also perhaps the first time that Welsh Government had tried to bring together some of the rail funding issues, especially the relative underfunding, in Wales Figure 85, the major rail enhancement opportunities across Wales Figure 86, with some estimate of their transport and wider economic benefits Figure 87.
It was this work that evidenced and set out the oft used, The Wales Route is approximately 10% of the UK Rail network, but only gets 5~6% of operations, maintenance and renewal (OMR) spend and more importantly only 1~2% of enhancement investment (See 13.2 Types of rail funding).
My original musings on a Swansea Bay Metro were more formally developed and presented; we also started to make the strategic case for and stress the importance of major upgrades of the SWML, NWML, the Borderlands line etc.
The “Case for Investment” also provided the foundation and initial formal evidence base for much of the strategic and detailed business case and scheme development undertaken by Transport for Wales and others in the period since. This included Lord Burns South East Wales Transport Commission (SEWTC)[12], Sir Peter Hendy’s Union Connectivity Review(UCR)[13]. That work flowed into TfW’s Metro Programmes[14] across Wales and now regional teams via Corporate Joint Committees (CJCs).
Figure 85 From Case for Investment – rail investment in Wales 2011-2018
In undertaking the Case for Investment work, we built a multi-disciplinary team (not unlike the Metro Impact Study in 2013) and so worked very closely with the consultants from Arup and Motts, Jim Steer of SDG and with Cogitamus, especially Katie Allister, who helped lead broader stakeholder and political engagement.
It was during this period that I met Christina Rees and Dean Cawsey in Neath, and many other officials and politicians who were a great help to me. I also contacted people like Tim Wood who was effective at developing the economic case for schemes in the Transport for the North Geography (inc. NPR) – although tension between TfN and the combined authorities was clearly present.
With Cogitamus we also engaged key stakeholders all across Wales in building the case for investment. This included several meetings with Merseyside Combined Authority to seek common cause for finding a means to integrate the Borderlands line with Merseyrail services. The recent introduction of the new battery powered Stadler 777s makes this a much more likely and lower costs prospect than the full third rail electrification previously proposed. TfW has really deepened this relationship and subject to funding I would be amazed if this project does not move forward in some form in the next few years.
Figure 86 From The Case for Investment – priority schemes
Figure 87 From The Case for Investment – potential benefits of priority schemes
As part of this work, I presented at a number of events and conferences – as well as an undertaking a range of TV/Radio/Press appearances. For example, in 2019 I presented alongside the then CEO of Transport for the North, Barry White, Heidi Alexander and Simon Kirby at the 2019 UK Rail Summit[15]. My speech followed a glossy video from Transport for the North featuring a little girl called Gracie describing her transport dreams for the north of England. It was very good. I followed this “glossy piece of marketing” and started by explaining that WG/TfW couldn’t afford a glossy video, so I was “their Gracie”. I also made the point (again) that in all the excitement over the TransPennine Route Upgrade (TRU), Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), HS2, etc that Wales was being completely marginalised in respect of major UK Government capital investment in rail infrastructure, despite now having an emerging pipeline of major projects. Groundhog Day, again.
Earlier in the Case for Investment process (and possibly even before) I also engaged again with Alun Cairns with respect to a proposal for a station at Felindre on the SDL. Despite Alun’s welcome commitment to the project, I was very clear then as I am now, that the work undertaken does not support a mainline station with a P&R at that location (not least as there are no rail services operating on the SDL) – even considering the 2023 ORR decision to award on open access path to Ian Yeowart of Grand Union Trains (GUT)[16] . What west Wales/Swansea Bay needs are more rail services from Cardiff/Bristol/London to Swansea/Carmarthen and beyond (so I welcome the GUT services); but Carmarthen is be best placed to be a West Wales Parkway[17]; not least to prevent generating further excessive car trips to Swansea, Neath etc from points west of Carmarthen.
Felindre station could and should be one of a number of local stops on a Swansea Bay Metro; this would make use of the SDL and with a new link to the SWML near Britton Ferry, enable direct services to both Neath and Swansea High Street (something that is not currently possible). My earlier work had also suggested (thanks to Jim Steer) the potential for a new SWML alignment from Port Talbot direct to Swansea along the coast (See Metro and the media for the local outcry in Neath), but the costs V benefits of that infrastructure would likely not justify its development vs line speed and capacity enhancements elsewhere on the SWML – and electrification thereof.
During the work on the Case for Investment, I also helped set up some more formal strategic development coordination groups between WG (Gareth Evans, James Ardern, Dave Thomas, James Hooker and others), Network Rail (Andy Scoggins, Sarah Reardon, Alice Bulpin and Emma Roche, etc) and TfW. Whilst early engagement with DfT officials during this period was in my view less than useful, by the end of 2019 and as a result of more effective engagement from the likes of DfT’s Dermot Carol (And those around him at Deputy Director level), the relationship with DfT I felt started to improve. All those involved from WG, DfT and NR were very committed to trying to move the agenda forward – but not blind to the challenges. Another more general observation, for me, is that one of the biggest challenges to securing funding and commitments to big projects, is not just persuading people but in dealing with the complexity, inertia and bureaucracy of public sector organisations. One has to stick at it if you want change; and as stated earlier, adopt as required a more Machiavellian approach.
7.5 Making a noise about rail investment in Wales
My independent role as “Professor of Practice” at Cardiff University also gives me the room to expand my network and engage politicians and officials at Westminster and Cardiff Bay without compromising my other roles. In that capacity, since 2016 I have attended many events at Westminster, for example All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) events and formal receptions, and worked with organisations like GrowthTrack 360, Western Gateway and Cogitamus.
My work has included formal engagement with Lord Burns (re the South East Wales (SEWTC) and North Wales Transport Commissions (NWTC) and Sir Peter Hendy (re the Union Connectivity Review (UCR)) to share my work and ideas which I hope were welcome.
I have also prepared formal submissions to committees at both the Senedd and Westminster as well as for the GBR Consultation on a range of transport related matters and especially the issue of rail funding in Wales, or lack thereof Vs rest of UK (See The Rail Industry, Wales and HS2).
In early in 2018 I was invited to make a speech[18] alongside Sir Terry Morgan (still then Chair of Crossrail) at the Shard for Wales Week in London setting out perhaps some of the wider benefits that could be secured from the Metro – and referencing back to the trip on the Valley Lines I took with MTR colleagues back in 2017. I presented at another Wales Week in London event at the Royal Festival Hall in 2019, and again at Arup’s London office in 2024, both on the subject of Transit Oriented Development and Metro.
Over this period, and again in an independent capacity, I was able to meet Rail & Transport Ministers in London (like Huw Merriman, Jo Johnson, Mark Harper etc) often through the help of MPs like Christina Rees, Jessica Morden and Geraint Davies or via APPG Groups. As you would expect at every opportunity, I have been trying to further the case for devolution and further rail investment in Wales; I probably sound like a stuck record.
I have also observed how much control officials at Whitehall can exert. For example, when I met Jo Johnson with Geraint Davies MP back in 2018, we had a few minutes before his officials arrived. In that time, we found common ground re: the relative depreciated state of the SWML vs say the WCML, GWML. However, when his DfT officials arrived, the discussion become far more constrained and limited to how DfT were interested (code for will do little) and the need to subject enhancement proposals to rigorous business case development etc.
At about the same time, in March 2018 and following some of my articles and blogs re rail investment in Wales, I was invited to a dinner with the Board of the DfT. I am not going to name names, but invitees included the Perm Sec, Directors and Deputy Directors – and some Senior Welsh Officials. This was part of the DfT Senio team’s effort as they described it, “An opportunity to discuss the policy context in Wales, Transport for Wales’s’ role, priorities, and to learn from their approaches to transport policy challenges”.
It was a useful session, and I got my 10/15 minutes to restate again the failings of the UK rail industry eco systems in respect of rail investment in Wales. I was also able to raise perversity of major schemes like HS2 (which in aggregate do not benefit Wales) being defined by HMT for Barnett purposes as an “England and Wales “ project. Whenever I am at session like this, most senior officials and politicians agree privately with my analysis but seemed either powerless or disinclined to do anything about it. This continual lack of meaningful action despite recognising the issue, has shaped my politics over the last few years.
In 2020/21 I also attended and gave evidence to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee review of rail investment in Wales. It was in some of the back conversations that the idea of a Wales Rail Board was conceived. In the absence of fully devolved rail powers and funding, such a Board could help shine a light on the rail enhancements required in Wales and the lack of funding resulting from the current sub-optimal arrangements.
I also had a very cordial meeting early in 2023 with Rail Minister Huw Merriman, again with Geraint Davies MP; he did understand the issues and seemed as frustrated with the current state of funding of Welsh rail as I did Figure 88. I also know he was far more vexed by the increasing costs of HS2 and its impact on the rest of the DfT budget (including NR Enhancements) and seemed powerless to effect changes to the current status of rail investment in Wales. The department official present at that meeting was far more cordial and appreciative of Wales’s issues, than those present at the meeting with Joe Johnson a few years earlier.
Despite the devolution challenges, at the meeting with Huw Merriman and in a number of Westminster meetings at around the same time, I raised the prospect of a joint Welsh Government / UK Government funded Wales Rail Enhancement pipeline. This, for me, presented a tactical opportunity to secure more investment in Wales in advance of a more permanent devolved settlement. One has to look for small victories that build toward the bigger prize. I did receive a letter during 2023 Figure 89 in response to my meetings and briefings (the dialogue is ongoing). By late 2023 a Wales Rail Board was in place and a formal list of Wales Rail Enhancement priorities in development. I hope by the time this book is published, this initiative has matured further. Although to be clear, the optimal solution is to fully devolve rail powers and funding to Welsh Government.
Figure 88 An excerpt from my informal briefing to DfT Rail Minister, Huw Merriman, Jan 2023
Figure 89 Letter to M Barry from DfT March 2023
Almost as a mirror image of the 2018 DfT Board dinner/meeting I attended, I was also invited to a NR Pre-Boad dinner in late 2022 where I raised all the same issues. To provide a broader context (especially to the DfT and Treasury representatives present) and to the surprise of some, I didn’t lead with the rail funding issues in Wales. Instead, I led with a question related to the recently announced proposal for a one train on hour service between Bristol Temple Meads and Portishead. Bristol is a city of over 400k in a region of over one million. It needs a high capacity, “turn up and go” Metro and one of the reasons it hasn’t, is the lack of local governance, power and accountability over rail. One train an hour is hardly commensurate with the need or opportunity in Bristol and a value engineered decision likely made by a handful of officials in and around Whitehall with little appreciated of the spatial and transport requirements of the Greater Bristol region. Imagine what we might have now had a regional PTE been established in Bristol/Avon in the late 1960s.
I was also able to reflect that Wales did now have some powers and capacity re rail services and development via TfW – although not over rail infrastructure. But at least TfW, with WG support, had been able, since 2020 to develop its Metro programmes. So, I was able to ask Board Members more pointedly, why is it, as custodians of Wales Rail network, that neither NR or the DfT had been able to develop the kind of schemes over the last twenty years that TfW had managed to develop and bring forward since 2020? This includes schemes that had been worked up earlier and endorsed by the likes of the SEWTC and Sir Peter Hendy’s UCR. This is a problem.
7.6 Cardiff Council, Cardiff Crossrail & Western Gateway
Figure 90 Western Gateway 2050 Rail Vision
Between 2018 and 2024 I had small formal part time roles (and interlinked) with Cardiff Council, the Cardiff Capital Region and the Western Gateway. One of the advantages of my potential conflict was that I was able to help curate a single picture of future strategic public transport requirements across SE Wales. So, the ask of Western Gateway and set out in its 2050 Rail Vision[19] prepared by Arup Figure 107 Figure 90 with work led ably by James Cooke (and before him Jo Dally), was consistent with the requirements set out by TfW for the SWML and those included in the CCR Passenger Rail Vision[20] Figure 108.
I actually helped define the remit for the development of the Western Gateway 2050 Rail Vision (which was in reality based on many of the same ambitions and schemes set out 10 years earlier with the Great Western Partnership – that I was also part of). One has to accept the reality of ground hog day when trying to secure political change and commitments to big projects – especially at Westminster. As I mentioned earlier, I also engaged in similar efforts re north Wales and the advocacy work of GrowthTrack 360 (The efforts of Stephen Jones, Ashley Rogers and others noted) supported by Cogitamus.
Figure 91 M Barry speech at the launch of Western Gateway 2050 Rail Vision in March 2023
All the above required and still does, a lot of galivanting around to help communicate these emerging transport visions, especially with politicians. So, I have attended a number of APPG and other meetings, receptions, etc at Westminster. It was at such, and in a Western Gateway capacity that I first met Transport Minister Mark Harper. I also made one of the formal speeches at the launch of the Western Gateway 2050 Rail Vison in Bristol early in 2023 alongside Jane Mudd (Leader Newport Council), Katherine Bennett (Senior VP Airbus) and Toby Savage (Leader South Gloucestershire) Figure 91.
The earlier Cardiff Council Transport White Paper[21] launched in January 2020 Figure 92 also complemented these “asks”, and I did have a hand in respect of its strategic transport projects. One of these was the Cardiff Crossrail[22] which I first aired as a concept in an article with Vaughan Gething back in 2012. The formal consultation for Phase 1a was initiated by TfW in September 2024, so progress on this scheme is being made.
I also recall a very useful coffee and map session around my dining table at home in January 2019, with Cabinet member Caro Wild, Leader Huw Thomas, Roddy Beynon (Arup) and Katie Allister (Cogitamus) to sketch out the art of the possible re: the White Paper and so refine the scope of the more detailed work necessary to underpin it via Andrew Gregory and his team.
Figure 92 M Barry Jan 2020 CCC Transport White Paper launch (Business Wales[23] & M Lewis)
During development of the White Paper, sometime in 2019, I was asked to present the emerging Metro projects for Cardiff to an informal Cardiff Council Cabinet meeting. I made clear my view that to deliver these schemes some form of “Road User Charge” would be required; not just from a social equity and health perspective but also as a means to generate a capital fund to help actually build it. That White Paper (and the many officers involved at Cardiff council deserve much credit for the final published form) was launched just before Covid early in 2020; and in 2023 UK Government committed some funds to an initial phase of the Cardiff Crossrail Project. As I set out later, the DfT needs to add more.
This work also involved me in another pretty bizarre meeting. I recall joining Huw Thomas and Caro Wild at a Labour Group meeting at the Senedd late in 2019. Without naming names, there was a fair amount of hostility to Cardiff’s plans for a “road user charge”. Quite rightly I think, the idea of only charging those coming into Cardiff, the “Valleys Tax” as one member coined it, was never going to fly. However, for me and as I shared in conversation after the main meeting, it seemed the primary objection to road pricing, typically whether we should have one, had been skipped over and instead it was more a case of “if we pay (i.e., commuters from outside Cardiff), then you pay as well (so Cardiff residents). That was a result in my eyes. Whether intentional or not, I suspect the real political issue will be, not whether we have some form of “RUC”….but how it is implemented, who pays and how much.
Whilst still much work to do, in 2023 Cardiff Council set out its intent to consult[24] on the matter. Whilst this is still clearly a challenging undertaking, I am hopeful that the combination of people like Huw Thomas, Caro Wild, Dan De’Ath (Cabinet member for Transport from 2022) and older heads like Russell Goodway (Cabinet Member Economic Development) will land something that is both effective and politically acceptable.
As set out in 10.6 Externalities – costs (especially health) & benefits we need a broader public discourse that exposes the costs to society of excessive car use and dependency.
The Transport White Paper also dovetailed with the CCR Rail Passenger Vision[25] which set out all the major public transport investment needed across southeast Wales – probably to 2040. In that work, like the Metro Impact study, I also tried to link where appropriate to economic development and regeneration opportunities and stressed again the importance of the region to embrace TOD in its approach to future LDPs and an SDP. The CCR Rail Vision was launched in 2021, but somewhat muted by the Covid pandemic.
7.7 Helping TfW from 2020 to 2024
After completing the Case for Investment for Welsh Government during 2018~19, I started engaging more with Transport for Wales on other matters – especially the future opportunities presented by Metro.
Remember, in 2019, TfW was in my view, still mainly a bureaucratic engine and contract management organisation set up to procure the Wales and Borders rail franchise. That part of the organisation responsible for operations, infrastructure and rolling stock now put its head down for the hard graft over the next 5/6 years to specify, order and roll out £800M of new rolling stock and design and build what would end up being a £1Bn plus South Wales Metro.
There was also another part of TfW of more interest to me, that focussed on the future and what might follow delivery of current contractual commitments. TfW’s Development Directorate as it was known, had a workload that was predominantly driven by Welsh Government remits and 10s, if not 000s, of individual requests from across all Wales’s local authorities for specific and often local schemes. This was unworkable and no basis for the development of strategic plans.
Part of my remit when I joined TfW as a part time strategic advisor in 2020, was to help TfW develop a strategic thinking mind able to bring forward major programmes of joined up transport schemes in partnership with WG, NR, DfT and Local Authorities across Wales. I was also keen that WG/TfW should be seen to be the “thinking mind” and not NR or the DfT. In 2018 this was not the case, but by 2023/4 it was.
So, I helped TfW (and WG) from 2020 to 2024 establish regional Metro development programmes – each led by a Strategic Development Programme Manager (SDPM). This was primarily for TfW to better manage and organise its workload remitted from 3rd parties but also to allow it to enable more strategic development across Wales and apply its developing “controlling thinking mind” to this work.
I waw also involved from 2019 with people like Dewi Rowlands and Sarah Jones in the initial development of the Wales Transport Strategy (we drafted a key themes paper) and later in the margins of the development of WelTAG for which Kate Clark deserves enormous credit for leading on the detail.
During this time, I also had plenty of positive interactions with Welsh Government officials including Ian Taylor (Ministerial Advisor), Sam Hadley (Ministerial Advisor), Deb Harding, Stephen Rowan, Jodye Kershaw, Steve Vincent and Robert Kent Smith amongst others; and not forgetting the new Head of Economic Infrastructure Peter McDonald who took up the role in 2022. As was the case back in 2012, as is not uncommon, many of the senior civil servants with whom I had developed a relationship in the period up to 2020 (Simon Jones, Dewi Rowland and Gareth Evans in particular) had moved on to other roles or retired, and so replaced with a new cohort. So, I was again, having a Groundhog Day.
As I mentioned elsewhere, the role of TfW’s Strategic Development Programme Managers (SDPMs) is to curate strategic programmes with regard to people, politics, process and place – and so working with people within and across organisations to balance the outputs of transport planning activities with both political and spatial realities, and with an eye on affordability. This SDPM role is not that dissimilar to the role of the Systems Architect in the IT world that I had been part of during the 1990s. More importantly, the governance of these programmes (via Strategy Board and Steering Groups) included senior representation from Network Rail and the Department for Transport as well as Welsh Government. As I stated above, for me it was important that WG/TfW were seen to be “taking control” of the strategic agenda.
This effort is based not only on the growing expertise and capability of TfW’s Planning and Development Directorate led then by Geoff Ogden, but of sophisticated transport models that now cover all of Wales, as well as pragmatic application of the Welsh Transport Appraisal Guidelines (WelTAG). The intent was and is to bring forward fewer, bigger and more strategic packages of interventions. This work also includes the perhaps more complex and challenging task of integrating bus services as part of our Metros – both in terms of services and networks, and of fares/ticketing. A challenge I suspect, that will become more soluble once Bus Reform[26] legislation has passed through the Senedd.
In discharging its responsibility, TfW are diligently trying to reflect all the aspirations from across Wales in curating a strategic view of all the moving parts and noting that many are at different stages of development. It is not possible to achieve 100% consistency or satisfy everyone in this endeavour, there will always be some grey at the edges. It is also true that the world looks very different through the lens of one local authority or even WG vs TfW, which sits at the confluence of a very large number of different requests and expectations – some of which are in conflict.
The future of Corporate Joint Committees[27], Strategic Development Plans or variants thereof and any change to the constitutional arrangements vis a vis rail infrastructure, will continue to shape TfW’s role and its organisational structure. However, despite the current funding and operational challenges, Wales is now in a much better to place to shape its own transport future than it has ever been.
References
[1] Mark Barry M4 related blogs:
New M4 – Yes or No? – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
No new M4…so what instead? – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
A Public Transport Grid for the M4 Corridor… – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
[2] Mark Barry Metro blogs:
Metro Moans for 2023… – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
Metro, subsidies & Cardiff… Some tough choices and compromises? – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
[3] University Transport Study Group UTSG – University Transport Study Group
55th UTSG Annual Conference, 10-12 July 2023, Cardiff
[4] Mark Barry & Cardiff University, What Metro Might Do?, 2016 What Metro Might Do? October 2016
[5] Mark Barry, 2019 b Transit Oriented Development in the Cardiff Capital Region
Transit Oriented Development in the Cardiff Capital Region #2 – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
[6] Mark Barry, 2018 blog, “Lloyd George Avenue and the Bay Line”, South Wales Metro & Lloyd George Avenue
[7] Mark Barry, 2023 blog Cars, Congestion, Health and Road Pricing… – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
[8] Mark Barry, Cardiff University, Capital Law and others, 2018, “Metro and Me” Metro & Me, October 2018
[9] Mark Barry, Swansea Bay Metro Blogs:
Swansea to Cardiff in 30 minutes and a Swansea Bay Metro – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
A Swansea Bay Parkway… …but where and why? – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
Wales’s Metros – Update Feb 2022 – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
Metro Hopes for 2023… – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
No rail devolution? No Swansea Bay Metro – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
[10] Welsh Government, Swansea Bay Metro, Swansea Bay and west Wales Metro: WelTAG stage 2 report,
TfW Swansea Bay Metro Future developments | Transport for Wales (tfw.wales)
[11] Prof Mark Barry, Welsh Government, 2018, The Rail Network in Wales – The Case for Investment The Rail Network in Wales (gov.wales)
[12] Welsh Government, 2021, Southeast Wales Transport Commission (SEWTC) SEWTC | GOV.WALES
[13] UK Government, 2021, Union Connectivity Review (UCR) Union connectivity review: final report
[14] TfW Metro Programmes, Metro | Transport for Wales (tfw.wales)
[15] UK Rail Summit 2019, Transport Times Events | UK RAIL SUMMIT | Agenda
[16] ORR announcement, 2022, Regulator approves Grand Union train service from Carmarthen to London
[17] Mark Barry, 2019, A Swansea Bay Parkway… …but where and why? – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
[18] Wales Week in London (at the Shard), M Barry Speech March 2018, Economic Impacts of The South Wales Metro?
[19] Western Gateway, 2023, “2050 Rail Vision” WEST-ARP-XX-RP-TP-0001_03_Western Gateway Rail_Spreads_Reduced-compressed.pdf (western-gateway.co.uk)
[20] Mark Barry, Cardiff Capital Region, 2020, “Passenger Transport Rail Vision” appendix-2-passenger-rail-vision-final.pdf (cardiffcapitalregion.wales)
[21] Cardiff Council, 2020, “Transport White Paper” White Paper for Cardiff Transport 2019.pdf
Cardiff Transport White Paper – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
[22] Mark Barry, 2018 “A Cardiff Crossrail” A Cardiff Crossrail… – Mark Barry (swalesMetroprof.blog)
[23] Business Wales, January 2020, The verdict on Cardiff Council’s £2bn transport vision – Professor Mark Barry
[24] Cardiff Council , April 2023, Cardiff Road User Payment Scheme (cardiffnewsroom.co.uk)
[25] Cardiff Capital Region, 2021, Passenger Rail Vision CCR passenger-rail-vision-final.pdf
[26] Welsh Government, Bus Reform Proposals, 2022, One network, one timetable, one ticket, Welsh Government sets out plans to change the way we travel | GOV.WALES
[27] Welsh Government advice to CJCs re preparation of Regional Transport Plans guidance-to-corporate-joint-committees-on-regional-transport-plans-2023.docx (live.com)
Written Statement: Update on Regional Transport Delivery and Metros (3 February 2023) | GOV.WALES