9 Metro and the media

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Finally, I think it worth briefly touching on the role of the media in helping communicate the Metro concept. The media have played a vital role in both advocating and communicating the Metro concept through its various stages of development; from an idea to an actual funded implementation programme. The stark reality is that without Metro news, there is no Metro

In this chapter I cover:

9.1 Metro and the media

One thing I did from the very outset was to engage the media and to seek out other rail and transport commentators to help communicate the Metro story.

Clearly back in 2011 and 2012, with the Cardiff Business Partnership (CBP) and my growing network, we managed to secure a lot of airtime – on BBC, ITV and the Western Mail. After the report was launched in 2011, I was keen to retain a constant drip feed of news stories – especially in 2012 and 2013. This is still true today.

For example, those in the rail industry will know of Ian Walmsley (and as I recall it was Luke Albanese who made me aware of Ian’s work); I met Ian in Cardiff in 2013 and helped him re: content for a very good article Modern Railways published in November 2013 on the potential of Tram-train for the Valley Lines. I also introduced Ian to the Western Mail and BBC Wales who both covered[1] his “expert analysis” in the months that followed.

I also made a point of working with politicians to continue to make the case for Metro. The Cardiff Crossrail proposal was first given a public airing in 2013 in a joint article I prepared with Vaughan Gething, another with Owen Smith made the case for better connections to Pontypridd and one with Mick Antoniw helped make the case for the “Valleys Circle”.

Steve Howell of Freshwater wrote a number of independent articles on Light Rail and Metro – drawing on his experience of living near the Metro system in Los Angeles. Steve and Freshwater (who were also part of the Cardiff Business Partnership) were both vocal advocates of the emerging Metro concept and I was more than happy to help shape these articles when asked. Later, in 2016, Steve and I prepared a short video explainer for a Waterfront Conference in 2016 on the Metro, which I think is still on You Tube[2].

In fact, since 2011 I have appeared probably on all the main channels (radio and TV). For example, Week in Week out, Sunday Politics, Sunday Supplement, The Sharpe End, BBC Wales News, ITV Wales News, Channel 5 News, Radio 4 PM, Radio Scotland to discuss Barnett and HS2, and more recently a piece for Alexei Sayle’s Radio 4 show, “Strangers on a train”. I have also had many on camera/radio chats with the likes Sarah Dickinson, Gareth Jones, Brian Meechan, Jason Mohammad, Adrian Masters, James Williams, Andrea Byrne, Mike Griffiths, Evan Davies, Rhodri Lewis, etc

I have written articles and blogs for the trade press; so, the likes of Rail Professional, Rail, Rail Technology Magazine as well as for IWA, Bevan Foundation and of course the Western Mail. In the last few years, I have also maintained a blog site with now over 50 articles on all manner of subjects – including and especially transport and Metro.

We can’t forget Prof Stuart Cole was a constant commentator on all things public transport in Wales and had been for much longer than me; nor my brother Sion Barry who has produced a whole series of well-informed articles and commentary on the Metro from its emergence in 2010 right through to the present day. Rhodri Clark has also been a long-standing contributor to the transport debate. More recently Will Hayward has made a career of pointing out the inequity of HS2 funding and has called on my knowledge on more than one occasion – he even asked me for the Ieuan Wyn Jones letter that is included in this book re: Welsh Government’s decision to decline rail powers in 2005. I have also chipped in to support articles by the likes of Andrew Mourant, Peter Plisner, Laura McAllister and Martin Shipton and of course Sion Barry. More broadly many local journalists have called on me to help (which I am happy to do) better understand a specific aspect of Metro, transport, rail funding, Barnett, etc. I have also contributed to articles in the Financial Times.

All these efforts were, I felt, necessary, to help ensure there was a constant drip feed of media stories on Metro and transport from multiple sources (so not just me.) to help retain at least a political focus – especially in the period 2011-2016.

However, when dealing with the media, things don’t always go to plan. For example, a blog I published in 2017[3], setting out an initial concept for a Swansea Bay Metro, created a quite different public reaction and a petition[4], in Neath of all places. The petition was opposed to my proposal, apparently, to close Neath station. I still scratch my head how such a clearly ill-informed public outcry was manufactured

My original Swansea Metro blog also incorporated a suggestion for a new more direct line to Swansea from Port Talbot over the Neath River and along the coast to Swansea. This is an idea Jim Steer had suggested and later reflected in a 2018 report by Greengauge[5]; Jim Steer had also helped with some of my 2018/19 work with Welsh Government re: The Case for Investment. This proposal would (and still could) cut journey times from Cardiff to Swansea but would require a very expensive piece of rail infrastructure and the need to skip Neath for those services. This was not meant to imply that Neath station should close – but that not every service (and there would be more) should stop there.

I recall discussing the issues with MS Jeremy Miles (as well as Lee Waters) who would die in a ditch, as he put it, to prevent any services skipping Neath. I think we have to be pragmatic; the emerging Swansea Bay Metro Programme developed by TfW balances the need for some reality in transport planning with the local politics. I also note the more recent ORR decision to award Grand Union Trains[6] authority to run an open access service from London to Carmarthen specifically provides for services not to stop at Neath or Swansea High Street.

Figure 116 My early Swansea Metro concept (2017) See Figure 83 for updated version

As I explain later in Transport Planning and choices we are faced with choices re transport plans – and for example the current desire to deliver faster services to West Wales from Cardiff needs to acknowledge that service that do so, will have to skip Neath and/or Swansea High Street, even without my earlier 2018 proposal. See 7.5 Making a noise about rail investment in Wales and 15.6 Swansea Bay and west Wales for more details on development in Swansea.

In this regard, I take the view that it is “better to have something being argued about in public” than there to be no debate at all. All I was doing was throwing a great big stone on calm water. In the splash and the ensuing conversation and debate we have collectively developed a programme for Swansea and West Wales that really can be delivered.

For me this all helped – even the opposition and the petition. Today TfW have worked up some very sensible and ambitious plans for Swansea Bay[7] based on the Case for Investment work that, if UK Government could find some ££, could begin to deliver the Metro in Swansea. Whilst my original main line suggestion seems lost to appraisal (a lot of capital for more marginal benefits), we still need to retain that level of ambition – no matter who might oppose it.

So, I used the press to share thoughts and ideas…and this was and still is a two-way street as people are genuinely interested in an independent view.

Even now, I drop blogs and articles into the trade press and broader media to help focus minds and/or make a point and use Twitter (or Xitter) and Linked In to share to a larger audience. I know my March 2024 blog on the lack of Metro in Cardiff ruffled a few feathers, especially via a vis the headlines and the use the word “woeful” by Media Wales in its coverage of my blog[8].

A final work here must go to TfW’s Lewis Brencher, James Williams and colleagues, who from 2020 through into 2024 had/have the toughest PR job in transport given delays in new rolling stock roll out, massive disruption due to Metro construction and industrial relations challenges. However, from 2025 and beyond this should turn into the best PR job in the transport world as more people in the wider Cardiff region begin to experience the new rolling stock and Metro services. Seeing is believing as they say; an expression my mother used in a video for Transport for Wales[9 ] in 2022.