Last week Cardiff Council revealed ambitious plans for a £1bn new integrated public transport network for the city.
Here transport expert Professor Mark Barry, the architect of the south Wales Metro project, gives his verdict on “Cardiff Crossrail."
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Cardiff Crossrail will transform connectivity across the city and open up areas for new development and regeneration form Plasdwr and Fairwater through Canton, Central Quay and Butetown to Splott, Tremorfa and onto Cardiff Parkway.
This will help address the primary issue facing Cardiff; dealing with the legacy of a transport network designed for a city with less than 300,000 people, but needing to develop a network for one with more than 400,000 at the heart of a city region of 1.6 million people.
I have written about this concept of a ‘Crossrail’ for Cardiff on a number of occasions over the last few years.
Now it has raised its profile again, but this time with intent. This is as a result of the application of tram-train technology currently being implemented by Transport for Wales on the Valley Lines through Pontypridd and more importantly the commitment of Cardiff Council to actively support/promote the scheme.
This demonstrates the ambition we need right across the region to really build a Metro development plan out to 2030 that benefits the whole region.
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More recently the decision to cancel the M4 Relief Road brings into sharp relief the need to provide viable alternatives to car travel across the region.
Transport connectivity also plays an important role in determining both economic and well-being outcomes, therefore it is crucial that we improve intra-city connectivity and reduce journey times to enhance access to employment opportunities.
As the capital city, Cardiff also fulfils a significant role as the regional and national centre for a number of organisations and facilities. This results in a significant number of retail, leisure and tourism visitors to the city many of whom originate from outside the city itself.
However, the rail network from the Valleys into Cardiff only handles about 12% of total demand; services are poor and unattractive versus alternative modes – especially car.
The contracted Metro solution will enable a doubling of capacity of the network into Cardiff and drive more demand. However, there may be a need to assess whether this is sufficient over the next 15 years. Perhaps we should be planning on much more.
Housing
Cardiff Council’s local development adopted in 2016 proposes significant additional areas of employment and housing (for example the major developments in the north west the city).
It is also likely that in the period to 2030 new sites may come forward, The development of Metro on a regional basis also needs to be integrated with the plans for a strategic development Plan for the region.
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Cardiff’s primary development issue is, perhaps, the transport challenge associated with the major housing planned in the north west of the city over the next 15 years. Whilst I am no fan of unnecessary green field development, I acknowledge there will always be a need for some.
However, in bringing forward such plans we must ensure public transport, active travel mixed used and development density are fully integrated. The Cardiff Crossrail and the extension into Rhondda Cynon Taf from north west Cardiff does provide an opportunity to revise plans to ensure more development density along route.
Without Cardiff Crossrail I am not sure we can justify such a large development which will inevitably generate many more car journeys. This is something we also looked at in the 2013 Metro Impact Study.
What Metro will not and will not deliver for Cardiff
Welsh Government, via Transport for Wales, awarded a new rail contract to KeolisAmey (branded Transport for Wales Rail Services) in 2018 which will deliver major improvements in the network of rail routes and services which connect to Cardiff by 2024 as part of the South Wales Metro.
The key features of Metro solution relevant to Cardiff are:
New heavy rail trimode trains (able to switch between diesel, battery and electric modes) on the Rhymney Line which can be powered by overhead electrification, on-board batteries or diesel engine.
These trains operate from Caerphilly (6 trains per hour ) and Coryton (2tph). Services will operate through Cardiff Central to the to the Vale of Glamorgan Line and destinations to Penarth and Bridgend.
Tram-trains will operate from Treherbert (4tph), Aberdare (4tph) and Merthyr Tydfil (4tph) via Pontypridd (12tph) with ten of these services travelling to Cardiff Central/Cardiff Bay via the Llandaff branch and two travelling to Cardiff Central via the City Line.
New stations will be added to the network at Loudon Square (Butetown), opposite the Wales Millennium Centre (Cardiff Bay) Crwys Road and Gabalfa. Metro will provide an upgrade in rail services and experience across the region and the city.
However, the contracted solution does result in some compromises for local Cardiff services, namely:
- 2tph services on the Coryton and City Lines will limit the ability of Metro to provide an effective alternative to the car in some parts of Cardiff; as a minimum these lines should be 4tph (the same as the rest of the core valley network).
- Exclusive use of the trimode trains on the Rhymney and Coryton lines is a constraint on potential future extensions beyond Coryton and perhaps the Cardiff Circle.
- The Vale of Glamorgan and City Line services (and therefore the potential north west corridor) are restricted by capacity constraints of rail routes at Cardiff West junction in Canton.
There are still good cases for further stations in the city on the existing network. These include Roath Park, Rover Way and Ely Mill.
The contracted solution from Transport for Wales, enables both network and services extensions such as the Cardiff Crossrail, through the application of tram-trains which allows more cost and engineering flexibility than is possible with a pure heavy rail solution.
They can operate on tighter curves, steeper gradients, require shorter passing loops as well running “on-street” and operating to line of sight “tramway” protocols. This presents significant opportunities across the region as well as in Cardiff.
Cardiff Crossrail
Core to the emerging vision of Cardiff Council is the incremental development of a Cardiff Crossrail, using tram-train technology being introduced as part of the South Wales Metro.
This will be the essential foundation of an ambitious long-term programme to encourage more public transport use across the city.
Here are 4 distinct sections which can be phased:
Cardiff Central/Lloyd George Avenue (LGA)/Cardiff Bay to provide a direct connection between Cardiff Bay and Cardiff Central
The application of tram-trains on the bay line can be a catalyst for a major landscaping and regeneration project – a Greenway.
Greenway projects re-purpose older industrial artefacts in cities to form new community spaces combining green space, active travel and public transport with community regeneration and development projects.
Learning from examples like the Arbutus Greenway in Vancouver, Cardiff Council could repurpose the existing bay line corridor incorporating some new development but also green spaces and active travel routes.
Cardiff West Junction and City Line
This section requires early action to address the network constraint at Cardiff west to enable at least 4tph on City Line, more services to Vale of Glamorgan/Penarth and to enable a later extension to north west Cardiff.
It will also provide major network benefits (increased capacity and redundancy) as it enables an alternative high capacity route from the valley lines into Central Station and to the bay (avoiding Queen St).
A new station can also be introduced at Victoria Park/Ely Mill and the role of Waungron Park as a bus interchange will become much more important with this improved rail services offering.
This section will also include a link between the city line at the western end of Cardiff Central to the extended bay line to Cardiff Central.
Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) to Rover Way/Newport Road (including the potential to connect to Porth Teigr).
A new station at Rover Way will interchange with main line rail services and support a bus interchange for access to the east of the city.
The service could also be extended on the relief lines to Cardiff Parkway and beyond.
This section requires a new link from the WMC across Pierhead Street through the docks to an upgraded Tidal Sidings freight line which can also support additional stations including Splott/Tremorfa and at/near Ocean Way in an area that it poorly served by rail.
Cardiff extension to Rhondda Cynon Taf from the City Line
This is an entirely new section that can be phased and serve the new housing at Plasdwr, support a major park and ride at M4 J33 and run through Creigiau and onto Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) via Talbot Green to Pontyclun; a potential for a spur to Beddau can also be considered.
This route provides an opportunity to develop complementary higher density housing and mixed-use schemes using Transit Oriented Development principles along the entire route.
Complementary projects
To complement the Crossrail proposals and to deliver better east-west connectivity across the north of the city a new connection between the Coryton Line and Radyr/Taffs Well, a Cardiff Circle is proposed.
Once network capacity issues are addressed it will be possible to operate tram-trains to Penarth to allow extension to Lower Penarth/Cosmeston.
Benefits
There are a wide range of benefits that can be secured from the development of a rapid transit network in Cardiff.
Perhaps the most important are:
The provision of a public transport service able to sustainably support mobility for a city of over 400,000 people at the heart of a developing city region 1.6 million people.
- Improved cross city connectivity and accessibility of parts of Cardiff (especially when combined with major bus interchanges and a redesigned bus network) suffering economic challenges (including Splott, Tremorfa and Ely which are in the top 10% of Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD)
- Development and community regeneration across the southern arc of Cardiff from Plasdwr, Fairwater and Ely in the west through Central Quay, Butetown and Cardiff Bay to Tremorfa, Splott, Rover Way and Cardiff Parkway in the east; as well as Gabalfa, Forest Farm, Roath Park and Heath Hospital in the north.
- Addressing transport constraints associated with the Plasdwr development and helping bring forward further Transit Oriented Development (TOD) along the route into Rhondda Cyon Taff, all the way via Talbot Green to Pontyclun).
- Transforming the Bay Line into an urban park via a regeneration and development project that can fully integrate Butetown into the wider city.
- A direct Metro connection between Cardiff Bay and Cardiff Central.
- A major Park & Ride at junction 33 of the M4.
- Station based development and regeneration initiatives long the line.
- Improved employment catchment of Newport, Bridgend, Barry, Pontypridd.
Furthermore, by extending Cardiff Crossrail to Cardiff Parkway (and beyond) on the relief lines to the east, would support direct services (via tidal sidings) to the new arena proposed in Cardiff Bay.
Perhaps most strategically, addressing the rail network constraint at Cardiff west junction in Canton delivers more network capacity and redundancy to the lines into the valleys north of Cardiff and to Penarth and Barry on the Vale of Glamorgan line.
The Cardiff Circle proposal will also deliver better east-west connectivity across the north of the city and perhaps more importantly, help enhance the employment catchment of Merthyr, Pontypridd and Nantgarw as more of the significant population of north and north east Cardiff would be able to travel to those locations using public transport far more easily than is the case today.
What next?
Fundamental to the delivery of Crossrail are measures to address the network capacity at Cardiff west and how the city line connects to the bay line south of Cardiff Central.
A detailed feasibility and time table study is needed to fully assess the options to help ensure early progress on this essential component.
Early action on this matter will vitally enable an increase in service frequency on the City Line; combined with enhancement at for example, Danescourt station and improved bus interchange, the new developments in north west Cardiff could initially be served by a local bus service connecting to rail services at Danescourt?
Similarly, bus interchange at a new Ely Mill station could be connected to better bus services from Ely.
The scheme in totality or in sections also needs to be subject to business case development using Welsh Government’s transport appraisal guidelines and detailed scheme development – this when we get into the details re: specifics of routes, alignments, services and stations.
Transport for Wales and Network Rail (especially with regards Cardiff west) will need to be part of the core team, with Transport for Wales leading on its development and delivery.
These proposals also require a major planning programme as some works require a Transport Works Act Order (TWAO) and so much necessary public engagement and consultation.
The recent cancellation of the M4 relief also means the region needs to develop complementary schemes, including for Newport and the Eastern Valleys, to help deliver a major shift to public transport. I set out some suggestions for a public transport concept for the M4 corridor in a recent blog.
We also need to get our heads around the funding. The capital expenditure for all of the above is probably in the range £500m to £1bn and will be associated with further revenue costs to provide necessary subsidy.
These proposals now embraced by Cardiff Council,are a natural extension to the next phase of Metro to be delivered by 2023/4 and should be part of a wider regional Metro development programme out to 2030 and beyond.
There is also potential to develop equally ambitious schemes in/around Newport and across the Valleys that merit further development.
The Metro was heresy eight years ago ( I know I was there, they all told me it would never happen) and now it is happening.
We have to step back here and give credit where credit is due.
Transport for Wales did not exist until 2015. Yet less than three years later it had concluded the biggest and most complex procurement in Welsh Government history.
I would also point out for the record that without devolution there would be no South Wales Metro or any prospect of a Cardiff Crossrail.
Under the stewardship of the DfT and 海角视频 Government schemes like this just don’t happen.
Therefore, Welsh Government and Transport for Wales are to be congratulated for pushing the South Wales Metro, despite that fact that rail infrastructure is a non-devolved matter and 海角视频 funding (which should in my view have covered all the capital expenditure) only makes up a small proportion of the £734m for the next phase of Metro.
Similarly we should also support the leadership and officials at Cardiff Council for embracing the potential of Metro through schemes like Cardiff Crossrail.
Its that kind of leadership and not just lines on a map that make projects like these a reality.