A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

There may be a faint glimmer, a flicker of hope or perhaps a distant green light as opposed to a red one - in relation to the establishment or perhaps re-establishment of the Ebbw Vale to Newport rail link. The new proposals from the new all Wales franchise holder include a reference to establishing a rail service between Ebbw Vale and Newport by 2021. So far there is not much detail - the resurrection of the connecting bus service (which I see trundle (empty) past me most mornings on my way to work) with more frequent but still empty freshly rebadged buses just won't do! 

Ebbw Vale to Newport by 2021?

A twice hourly rail service (at peak) and once an hour off peak between Ebbw Vale and Newport will be more than acceptable. The extra services (16) a day between Cardiff and Cheltenham must call at Chepstow and Severn Tunnel and the new stations at Llanwern and Magor - if and when they open. It's still not to late for the Welsh Labour government (and our other elected representatives) to extract a commitment to build at station to serve Caerleon / Ponthir - something that has been in both Gwent and Newport UDP's and LDP's since the 1980's. Todays news is definately a step in the right direction but I and no doubt plenty of other people will be interested in the detail. 

AVOID, DEFLECT, ATTACK, IGNORE

In most normal countries and states around the world the state of the nation's railways is understandably a matter of some economic significance, concern and civic pride. Yet the current state of our nations fragmented railways is a source of national embarrassment and collective frustration, rather than boosting our economy, they are literally dragging our economy down. 

Back in the 2016 National Assembly election's one of the Labour Party’s key flagship transport policies was that they would “deliver a new, not-for-profit, rail franchise from 2018”. The current (for how long is an open question!?) Incumbent is Cabinet Secretary for Transport, it was Ken Skates who actually authored that manifesto.

Yet, the current Welsh Labour Government has just handed over responsibility for our national railways to a French-Spanish, for-profit, consortium of transnational corporations – the former made a profit of €313 million in 2016. This means very basically that rail passengers in Wales will therefore no longer be subsidising rail passengers in Germany at least - as is the case under the current franchise with the German state-owned Arriva - we will be subsidising rail passengers in France instead.

The Labour in Wales government in Cardiff Bay could argue that they aren’t able to procure a publicly owned operator under the terms of the Wales Bill - they haven't. The harsh reality Labour in Wales has completely (and pretty consistently I might observe over the years) failed to ensure that the devolution settlement permitted the Welsh Government to procure a not-for-profit rail operator. 

To make matters worse, they then actually choose to vote in favour of this new devolution settlement, in the full knowledge that the settlement would stop them from being able to deliver on this important transport promise. The Welsh Government simply accepted this position, and subsequently has awarded a £5 billion rail franchise to the majority-owned French rail company, Keolis, and Spanish infrastructure corporation Amey to run the Welsh network for 15 years (2033).

As has become the sad norm for this Labour in Wales Government, when faced with awkward or difficult questions in the knowledge that they have lost the intellectual and moral argument, tend to avoid, deflect and evade challenges through personal and puerile attacks - and a blatant refusal to answer questions (as personified by Carwyn Jones's behaviour at First Ministers questions). 

The First Minister, however, as has been noted elsewhere is not alone when it comes to this behaviour. For one thing Labour cannot differentiate between itself and civic government - criticise them and they will attack you for undermining the institution be it in Cardiff Bay or Newport Civic Centre - but they will never directly answer the question or the criticism. 

In a recent debate in the National Assembly the Transport Secretary just refused to answer a crucial question that would at least have measured the sincerity of his vision for a Welsh not-for-profit rail operator. It was possible to introduce a ‘Break Clause’ to this franchise agreement which would allow the Welsh Government to end the contract before the formal contractual end date - this was not done. 

This would at least have bequeathed some future Welsh Government potential wiggle-room / freedom of movement to actually deliver a not-for-profit rail franchise if there was a change in the law made by a so minded Westminster Government. No such assurances were sought - this means the Labour in Wales Government have effectively bound the hands of not just the next administration, but the one after that, and, indeed, the one after that.

A recognisable pattern about decisions that bind the hands or limit the options of future Welsh governments may have emerged. This decision also mirrors the potential financial consequences of a commitment to the M4 Black route - which would tie up fresh acquired borrowing powers with significant loan  commitments that could effectively tie the hands of future Welsh governments (Labour in Wales or otherwise) for  years. 

The very borrowing powers themselves may have been reluctantly conceded by Westminster (by George Osbourne) with this in mind.  Now in relation to the rail franchise this could be down to a number of reasons: a lack of vision or desire from Labour in Wales, poor (if not downright questionably impartial) advice from the civil service, a lack of attention to detail, simply not being up to the business of governance with a deliberately badly designed system of devolution, or perhaps just not actually simply not being that good at what they do.

Now it can be argued that this could be down to arrogance, complacency, cynical indifference or a recognition of the realities of the current electoral system.  The partially proportional electoral system can be said to have largely been designed to deliver Labour majority government. 

It is more than possible that Labours duly elected representatives in Wales cannot envisage a non Labour dominated (minority or majority) government ever being elected. And at this moment in time who could say that they are not correct in this belief. If you were so minded, that the Labour minority government's that have been elected (periodically since 1999) have been a result of the electorate casting their votes despite the electoral system - which may say a great deal about some of the shrewd choices made by electors in our nation from time to time.

That said the Labour in Wales Cabinet Secretary questionably argued that this new for-profit franchise will deliver outcomes for passengers - something that very effectively undermines the Labour Party’s position at Westminster on nationalisation in its entirety. Plaid Cymru has long believed that Wales needs a publicly owned railway to ensure that dividends and profits are reinvested back into the Welsh rail services that have been starved of funding by successive Westminster governments. 

Recently the great leader (JC) spoke of the need for a people's railway, yet here, the only national government the Labour Party controls, are busy celebrating their achievements by brazenly and slavishly following the Conservative Party’s privatising agenda. A case of do as I say, not as I do? We have a long way to go in our country but for certain Labour in Wales is not the answer we are looking for…

THANKS FOR NOTHING

Once again our rail fare are rising with the regular post Christmas ramp up of rail fares. Welsh commuters travelling on Great Western Railway lines will have to pay 3.1% more for their tickets. Many annual season tickets prices have increased yet again e.g. a season ticket between Neath to Cardiff, has gone up by £56 to £1,708.

The idiots (some of whom may have found themselves well paid handsomely salaried executive employment post rail privatization) who decided that privatisation of the railways was a good idea – have left us with an overly expensive and fragmented rail network.

Personally I don’t trust Westminster (or the Labour Party) to run our railways, look at the mess they made last time and the mess they made privatizing our chronically underinvested railways. Barely concealed behind the fare rises Westminster is not so quietly washings its hands of investing in our railways and shoving the costs of investment onto rail users and the franchise holders.

Effectively unrestrained and largely unsupervised, the rail companies have been continuing to ramp up rail fares again, while running often minimal rail services, all with the tacit co-operation of the Westminster Government’s, the Department for transport (in London).

Here in Wales it did not help much when both Welsh Labour and Welsh Conservative MPs at Westminster voted against the devolution of that portion of rail track within Wales – something that would have enabled work on our railways to be planned and actually carried out. 

Arriva (Deutsche Bahn) withdrawal from bidding for the next Wales franchise won’t solve our problems with our poorly developed and badly fragmented rail network. Not when Netherlands State Railways, French State Railways and Hong Kong State Metro are waiting in the wings; as the three remaining contenders for the franchise.

With the best will in the world we may end up with more of the same as all of whom (just like most of the other franchise holders) will rake in the profits to fund investments and cheap rail fares in their home countries.  Think on that when we are rattling along in our over crowded ancient but relabeled / rebadged rail franchise.

THEY WON'T BE MISSED...

So Arriva (Deutsche Bahn) have withdrawn from the next Wales franchise – as a regular victim of Arriva trains, I shall not miss them. This leaves Netherlands State Railways, French State Railways and Hong Kong State Metro as the three remaining contenders – all of whom (just like most of the other franchise holders will rake in the profits to fund investments and cheap rail fares in their home countries; so which idiot decided that privatisation of the railways was a winner anyway?

Our relationship with railways in Wales is a little odd, there is a tendency to focus on anniversaries of rail closures or rail events rather than anniversaries of openings. This may well be because for all of the twentieth century transport policy was something that was done to us rather than done for us. I mention this, because I noticed that a plaque was unveiled (back in 2011) to mark the 154th anniversary of the arrival of the railway in Knighton (Powys).

The 22-mile section of the Heart of Wales line from Craven Arms, Shropshire, to Knighton, which was constructed in 1861, and probably for fear of political consequences, managed to avoid being closed in the 1950’s and 1960’s, is truly spectacular.  A £5m project, which upgraded parts of this rural railway, was finished in 2010, reinstating five passing loops at Knighton, Llandrindod Wells and Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys, and at Llandovery and Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire. This small positive step, could, with extra services,  the restoration of railway halts lead to a much more regular better used rail service.

The current somewhat weak and shaky Conservative Westminster Government and the former New Labour Government in Cardiff need to get serious about developing integrated public transport across the valleys and the south east and beyond. For more than a few years Plaid in Monmouth has called for improvements to existing services and facilities and a series of feasibility studies to investigate re-opening previously closed railways as has happened in Scotland.

We face a future where cheap fuel will be a thing of the past, so we need to ensure that all our communities have reasonable access to a reliable cheap system of integrated public transport, at the heart of which needs to be our long neglected rail network. The old excuses about a lack of funding (despite the banking related financial crisis) are no longer acceptable; Wales makes up 5% of the population of the UK, and makes contributions to the exchequer – given the vast expenditure on Crossrail and HS2, that Wales gets 5% of the UK transport spend, and full control of our transport planning and our transport budget.

A post bexit devolutionary half-way house just won't work anymore; it will not deliver or even give us the chance to deliver, even with legislative powers. The changes and reforms that are necessary to fix the problems in our country means that we need the tools to do the job. It didn't work with a nominally Labour Government and was never going to work with a Conservative dominated Government which is indifferent to any concept of devolution in particular and the needs of Wales in particular.

Even with legislative powers and a gesture of financial control and taxation, we still remain in some sort of half devolved limbo state of governance, lacking a fair financial settlement. Let's be honest with ourselves, with all the best will in the world this is not going to work well, even with an inert and visionless self-serving former New Labour government in Cardiff that is confortable not rocking the boat.  To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, real governance can no more be half devolved anymore than someone can be half free or half dry.

Wales needs a fair financial settlement and real powers so we can construct a decent system of integrated public transport. This has happened in Scotland (regardless of which political party was in government) significant strides have been made to reopen, redevelop and build a coherent and integrated public transport system. In Wales in the last sixteen years there have been two railway re-openings carried out by Network Rail at the request of the National Assembly; the Vale of Glamorgan Railway Line (re-opened on Friday 10th June 2005) and the Ebbw Valley Railway Line (partially re-opened on Wednesday 6th February 2008).

To be brutally honest these were administrative rather than legislative projects, this has not been the case in Scotland, where bills and vigorous campaigns to reopen old railways were vigorously debated, scrutinised, amended and passed by the Scottish Parliament. If we are serious about integrated public transport then we are going to have to get serious about how we are going to develop and redevelop our existing and underinvested public transport infrastructure.

The Transport (Wales) Act in February 2006 gave us powers to plan and co-ordinate an integrated transport system, how long do we have to wait to see some vision? In the meantime the rail companies have been busy ramping up rail fares, while reducing rail services, all with the tacit co-operation of the Westminster Government’s and the Department for transport (in London) and both Welsh Labour and Welsh Conservative MPs at Westminster voted against the devolution of that portion of rail track within Wales – that would have enabled work on our railways to be planned and actually carried out.  .

Such duplicity has never been acceptable - it’s time for our government in Cardiff to take the long term view, to bite the bullet and actually put its money where its mouth is and work to redevelop our rail services, boost the development of rail freight and to co-ordinate rail and bus services across the whole of Wales. To do this effectively Wales needs to have full control of it's transport policy and transport budget devolved as quickly as possible and the franchise when it is renewed it should be run on a not for dividend profit basis.

If the Governments in London and Cardiff are really serious about cutting carbon emissions and reducing road congestion then we need work to get heavy goods back onto our railways. There is no quick fix, but, the time for excuses is over, we need to plan for the future. This may not be cheap but it can be done if the political will is there, as has happened in Scotland, where there is a useful combination of the will, the funding and interested private partners.