Cardiff Council's Transport White Paper represents a step change in how local authorities in Wales approach the challenges of mobility, climate change and development in cities.
For the city it means Metro, more buses and bus priority, redesigned streets and urban spaces giving priority to pedestrians and cyclists.
Whilst there undoubtedly major challenges and obstacles, not least the need for a road user charge, I want to help ensure that this is delivered over the next ten years.
A little context first. There is harsh reality to face when dealing with this issue and facing down the challenge of climate change. Across Wales, most of us commute in cars.
Latest figures show that over 80% of us used cars with only 4% on train and another 4% on bus.
So even doubling that level of public transport only scratches at the surface of car usage. In Urban areas such as Cardiff the figures are a little better – but even here 50% of people are still commuting in cars with 30% active travel and 20% public transport.
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Given the challenge of climate change and the long term negative impacts of car based sprawl, I think a reasonable target for Wales is to get car usage down to 60% or less (from 80%); so a 25% reduction.
That suggest for Wales we need to go from 8% to nearer 30% public transport (bus and rail) use; for the sake of this exercise that assumes at least a trebling of public transport capacity.
In Cardiff I would argue that we should aim to get public transport to 35-40%, Active travel to 35-45% and 25% for car mobility.
For Wales and Cardiff the mode shift required is big, but necessary.
It’s not just climate change either, our car dominated society has de-sensitised us to some obvious facts.
If you look out of most windows what do you see? Tens, hundreds, of cars sitting there not being used, or if they are, stuck in traffic. Most cars spend probably 95% of 'their lives' doing absolutely nothing. This clogs up streets and ties up natural resources.
Having to design our cities around what cars do when they are not moving is as bad as having to do so when they are. We have also become desensitised to the nearly 5 deaths on average each day (1.700 per year) on the 海角视频’s roads.
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There are also air quality and health impacts that are only now being fully appreciated to leading to even more deaths. Suggestions that we should just electrify this mobility ecosystem are missing the point – we need fewer cars first.
Major changes are needed.
Metro schemes
Across Wales, including Cardiff, we need to shift much more of our capex to rail, bus and active travel to provide all of us in more places, a viable alternative to the car.
I would note, even with the cancellation of the M4 Relief Road, we still have £1.5bn of road schemes set out in the Welsh Government's National Infrastructure Plan.
We have to question the priorities.
I also acknowledge that we still have a major anomaly as regard rail investment in the 海角视频 which doesn’t help.
Rail infrastructure powers and enhancement funding are not devolved to Wales and are determined on an England & Wales basis by the DfT & 海角视频 Government.
The Welsh rail network has suffered serious under funding versus the 海角视频 network over decades.
This is relevant as some of the proposals Cardiff have put forward require further “enhancement of the rail network” to extend the next phase of the South Wales Metro. The 海角视频 Government must help address this issue.
Despite these institutional difficulties, Cardiff Council has nonetheless recognised the scale of the challenge and has brought forward some ambitious proposals.
As the White Paper sets out, perhaps the biggest challenge is addressing the fact the city has a transport network designed for 200,000 people but needs one to cope with 400,000 and well over 100,000 inward commuters on a daily basis.
Cardiff Crossrail
So, schemes like Cardiff Crossrail are vital to the city and the region (given it includes the NW corridor extension through Plas Dwr to Rhondda Cyon Taff).
The Cardiff Crossrail project builds upon the current investment in the South Wales Metro and seeks to address some shortcomings of that scheme in the city:
Analysis of accessibility to rail services from the most densely parts of the wider region highlights some of the challenges that exists .
In terms of access to rail stations whilst 36% of Cardiff residents live within 800 metres of a railway station, only 24% live within 800m of a railway station served by four or more trains an hour, compared to 34% of Rhondda Cynon Taff.
As a result, most of the population of Cardiff do not have the option of accessing work in neighbouring local authorities using rail – this is an issue for places like Pontypridd, Barry, Newport and Caerphilly which could support more employment if their catchment areas were increased; this to a large extent is dependent on improving rail access across Cardiff itself.
To exemplify, the City and Coryton lines are only specified to operate at two trains per hour.
Given demographics, the routes catchment and increasing demand across Cardiff (linked to population growth), we should be aiming for at least 4 trains per hour (tph) and more likely 6tph at peak times.
More strategically the Crossrail scheme will:
- Help address the increasing congestion in the North West of the city
- Provide a new public transport corridor all the way to Pontyclun and Talbot Green
Connect the city east-west and better connect places like Splott/Tremorfa.
Open up further development opportunities in Cardiff Bay.
Provide an opportunity to redevelop the entire Bute Street/Lloyd George Avenue Corridor and deliver a direct link between Cardiff Bay and Cardiff Central.
It should be noted that there is also an essential and pragmatic first phase of Crossrail which can be accelerated and is an essential foundation for the entirety of rail schemes set out by the city (and others across the region.
This Cardiff Core Metro”requires a new connection between the City Line and the Bay line and the operation of at least 4tph from Radyr to the bay via the city line.
A potential solution would see a connection from the City Line just south of Central across Callaghan Square . and in so doing provide more platform capacity at Cardiff Central.
This work will also require a solution to the capacity constraints at Cardiff West.
This network bottleneck could be easier to address with the application of tram-train technology (more alignment and elevation flexibility for tram-train infrastructure v traditional Heavy Rail).
More importantly perhaps (especially given the need in my view for a quadrupling of public transport capacity), this scheme will provide more overall network capacity and reliability by allowing more service from north of Cardiff to route to the bay via the City Line and Central and so avoid the congestion via Queen St.
Depending on the solution it could also enable more services to operate on the Vale of Glamorgan Line to Barry and beyond.
This Cardiff core Metro work for me is perhaps the most important next phase for the South Wales Metro after the current phase if delivered in 2023/4 alongside addressing service
capacity constraints on the Ebbw Valley Line to Newport, developing some x-valley connectivity and measures as an alternative to the M4 Relief Road.
This foundation will also make the link between the Coryton Line and Radyr easier to justify.
One option would allow tram-train services to start/end at Heath Lower and run east via Coryton to the City Line and onto the Bay freeing up capacity on the Rhymney Line for more trimode services to Caerphilly and enabling a new station at Roath Park.
This is in effect delivers the circle line “connectivity” via an interchange at Heath Low/High Level between tri-mode and tram-train services.
In advance of the full Crossrail, this first phase, with a turn up and go service at Fairwater, Danescourt and Waungron Road, combined with bus integration measures at those stations, will offer a much more attractive public transport option in the west of the city to help address some of the congestion associated with the new development.
It is also essential to enable the future expansion of Crossrail to Plas Dwr and RCT.
Cycling
As a cyclist I am also hugely supportive of the city’s active travel measures. I only wish we could accelerate and expand the plans for segregated cycle ways across the city.
The bottom line is we will get more people cycling if they can be made to feel safe in doing so; a dedicated cycle way does this in a way that just paint on a road does not!
As important getting more people to walk and cycle instead of driving will have significant health benefits both to the individuals, but also to hard pressed health services.
Buses
There are also major ambitions for bus services with the development of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) - that means full segregation and priority
I think this point is worth stressing - no matter what the mode, the most efficient and attractive operations are achieved when you can segregate operations from “other stuff” - be it cars, pedestrians, other buses, trains, etc.
You can run faster services, more often at lower unit cost and at the same time offer more attractive services that encourage more passengers and revenue.
When combined with turn up and go” frequency services (generally assumed to be at last four services per hour) public transport can really provide an attractive and viable alternative to car mobility in our urban areas.
Whilst there are ambitious BRT schemes in Cardiff’s plan, I think there are plenty of short term opportunities to introduce more bus lanes and bus priority measures.
For example I would like to see bus lanes on Albany Road, Richmond Terrace and espeically. West Grove down to the junction of Newport Road. Similarly we perhaps need to look at bus lanes and associated priority measures on Cathedral rd all the way up to Penhill.
I also think we could do more to enhance the Cardiff Circle to improve current cross city accessibility with more frequent services, more bus priority measures and a much great emphasis on the ability to interchange across the city at different points to more radial services.
To do this I still think we need to see Transport for Wales build up their capacity and capability in terms of bus integration, and to lead this kind of work across all of Wales.
In the short term I’d like to see Cardiff Council, Welsh Government, Transport for Wales and Cardiff Bus work together to explore what short term measures could be introduced.
So whilst some of the measure in the White Paper will take years to implement and, in many cases, will need support from the region and Welsh Government, they are nonetheless the right measures. We all need to change how we move around our towns and cities.
Road User Charge
One of the more controversial parts of the White Paper is the prospect of a road user charge. There is clearly much more discussion to be had.... but we do need it.
In developing and delivering the transport infrastructure to support the mode shift required we will need to both build out more bus and rail infrastructure and discourage driving.
Therefore we have to look at a means to apportion more of the long term external costs of car use to the user through mechanisms like road user charging. This issue generates much emotion and much ill-informed debate, but we need to get through it.
The evidence is clear, building more road space generates more traffic, many of the costs of car use are external and have not been adequately appraised or recouped over decades; together this has led to more and more car dependant sprawl leading to the demand for more road space to service it.
The stark fact is that since the 1950s we have depreciated our public transport infrastructure at the same time as expanding our car based infrastructure.
If we can secure the sensible and reasonable shift to public transport and active travel I suggest above, we will find that we have more than enough road space for those that still need or choose to use their cars for particular journeys.
To do this the priority has to be investment in public transport capacity not more road space.
Actually, given the long term environmental and spatial impacts and external costs of car mobility as references above I would prefer to call this “he removal of the car use subsidy.
This is a long overdue debate and we need to have it.
- Professor Mark Barry of Cardiff University was behind the vision for the South Wales Metro project.