Enterprise and Business Committee November 2012

Purpose

To inform Committee of ICE Wales Cymru’s position in respect of integrated transport in Wales.

1.	Background: Transport Infrastructure
	Infrastructure is at the heart of society and there is a clear link between the condition of Wales’ infrastructure and the country’s economic well-being. Transport infrastructure plays a key role in the overall infrastructure and affects all sectors.
2.	Integration
	Improved integration between all modes of transport, including integrated ticketing, is necessary to change the current reliance on private (car) transport. The travelling public require effortless interchange between the various forms of public transport on bus/rail and car/bus/rail. Whilst there are examples of good practice across Wales there is little evidence that this full integration is being implemented.
3.0	Examples
3.1	Cardiff Wales’ capital city has now lost the integration of bus-rail with the failure to redevelop the bus station; the introduction of a “bus box” does not work satisfactorily. The situation is compounded by poor perceptions of passenger arrivals into Cardiff with the current conditions. Limited park and ride services have been introduced, but are not successful and concerns exist in respect of the recent proposals to develop major housing areas.
3.2	Swansea The park and ride service and metro is successful, but there is poor integration of rail and bus service. The bus station is located some distance from the remodelled train station with poor signage. The bus station however is an excellent example of good practice, but limited information of rail services.
3.3	Newport The train station is a good example of remodelling but the opportunity to link to an adjacent bus interchange has been lost.
3.4	Rhyl Rhyl has a new bus/rail interchange.
3.5	Aberystwyth This bus station has been rebuilt and adjacent to the rail station.
3.6	Caerphilly This has good signage with the bus station adjacent to the rail services.
3.7	Carmarthen This rural rail station is connected to the bus station.
3.8	Rural Areas Much of Wales is very poorly served by integrated transport with passengers needing to plan carefully in advance because of the lack of information and interconnections. The long journey times across Wales makes this increasingly difficult e.g. rail Cardiff – North Wales 4 hour 30 minutes; Cardiff – Pwllheli over 6 hours; Cardiff – central Wales is particularly difficult with very infrequent services.
4.0	Innovation
	There are good examples of innovation and Bwcabus is an excellent example in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion.
5.0	Land Use
	Care must be taken in planning new developments to ensure that these new residential and commercial areas are well served by an integrated public transport service. Lag in the provision of services will not only cause problems for the occupiers but will lead to transport patterns being established that are difficult to change.
6.0	Conclusion
6.1	Policy
	It is suggested that there is a need for the Welsh Government to implement changes, which could involve the creation of a single overseeing transport authority across Wales. Furthermore, the introduction of a franchising operation may produce better results than the current deregulated services where routes operate to benefit the profitability of the transport companies, rather than serving business, commerce and residents.
6.2	Modal Split
	Wales is poorly served by integrated transport and there is still very heavy reliance on the car and private motor vehicle. Improvements needed to change the modal split towards more sustainable forms of transport include ease of transferring from one mode to another and integrated ticketing.

Keith Jones Director, Institution of Civil Engineers Wales Cymru

§ The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) was founded in 1818 to ensure professionalism in civil engineering.  It represents over 80,000 civil engineers in the UK and across the globe and has around 4,000 members in Wales.

§ ICE has long worked with the government of the day to help it to achieve its objectives, and has worked with industry to ensure that construction and civil engineering remain major contributors to the UK economy and UK exports.

§ For further information visit: www.ice.org.uk and www.ice.org.uk/wales