1) Infrastructure projects
a) The Pembroke Dock Interchange is now complete – all bus services using Laws Street should be persuaded to use it. Currently the 349, 508 and 528 do not. Pembs CC say they are working on this.
b) Milford Haven transport interchange planning is currently in the hands of Pembrokeshire County Council. It should continue through to completion.
c) Reduce Whitland to Pembroke Dock and back time to under two hours to improve reliability, improve efficiency and increase capacity – probably by getting rid of the three level crossings at which the train is required to stop, but there are other possibilities! Recent road improvements have reduced the road journey time Pembroke Dock to Carmarthen to 40 minutes. We have always said that we don’t mind road improvements as long as there are equivalent rail improvements. The Rail journey Pembroke Dock to Carmarthen still takes about an hour and 20 minutes – double the road time. Network Rail have said that work on the Llanion crossing is imminent, but that Beavers Hill and Manorbier Newton will require significant bridge work.
d) Retain Swansea district line in double track form – improve speeds and headways, and build park and ride station near Morriston (see later).
e) Preserve diversionary routes (such as Swansea District line and Vale of Glamorgan line) as diversionary routes when engineering work or breakdown prevents trains from using the main line, ensure that they have decent line speeds and are signalled with the same capacity(headway) as the mainline.
f) Ensure that electrification to Swansea from London will improve travel for Pembrokeshire Travellers (eg will NOT require more changes, will NOT reduce services between London and Carmarthen, will NOT reduce services between Milford Haven and Manchester, and will continue to offer and maintain good connections where changes are required )
g) Technology improves apace. Train information systems need to keep up. For example, ticket scanners could permit a central system to know the destinations of everyone on a train. A central system could then reschedule connections in the event of late running. (No more “We are sorry, but due to late running, this Cardiff-bound train will terminate at Newport” )
2) Joined up thinking and joined up journeys:
a) More long distance trains to different destinations (travelling by motor-car – major competitor for rail, you never have to switch your self, your family and your luggage from one car to another at a motorway service station!)
b) Better interchange train to train at stations where a change is essential (Design stations for interchange, minimise walk between connecting trains, arrange timetables to connect, and manage the trains to connect on the day) Don’t allow National Rail Journey planner to recommend changing trains at Newport, when Newport is not designed for interchange and Cardiff is clearly better. Our classic experience is the three minute late arrival at Newport (from Reading) which resulted in a Four hour twenty minute late arrival at Milford Haven. Swansea is not a hub – it has only two spokes – it is just a station on the line between Paris and Ireland.
c) Easier physical interchange between transport modes at Pembrokeshire Stations (we have produced a separate survey on this). Land at Clunderwen, Manorbier and Saundersfoot stations is reserved in the county strategic plan for parking developments.
d) Specifically ensure that through trains from London to Pembrokeshire destinations will be able to continue to run – more specifically, ensure that lines in Pembrokeshire are capable of hosting IEP trains.
3) Recent health service changes in health service reorganisation suggests that more people (patients, visitors and staff) may need to travel from Pembrokeshire to Glangwili and Morriston, and this needs a public transport appraisal and response (better still if all the departments had worked together in the first place).
4) All Pembrokeshire stock should be proper main-line stock – the lines in Pembrokeshire are not branch lines, but limbs of the Trans-European Network. Many Pembrokeshire travellers are going beyond Carmarthen and will probably be on their first train for more than two hours – the quality of that first train is important, as the provision of well-presented toilets and refreshment trollies.
5) Overcrowding on the Milford Haven line needs addressing either via use of three car trains every two hours or by an hourly service. Overcrowding is especially likely on Saturday, when it needs to be possible to provide additional coaches – especially important when there are sports fixtures in Swansea or Cardiff.
6) There should be one Fast train from Milford to Cardiff and back each day – target of knocking half an hour off the regular stopping train time.
7) Fishguard Harbour should have a late afternoon service in addition to those it has at present.
8) Sunday must have a decent train service. In the year 2017, it is unacceptable that on Winter Sundays, the earliest we can reach Swansea from Pembrokeshire by train is 13.15, and Cardiff 14.15 – can’t have a day out in Cardiff, can’t go to Llanelli for a Scarlets midday kickoff.
9) Longer trains on match days would reduce road congestion. There needs to be spare stock, and a mechanism to encourage provision of extra trains.
10) Bustitution (replacing trains with buses during engineering possessions) should be minimised. Single track working, overnight possessions and train diversions should be the norm. On the rare occasions when replacement buses are required, replacement buses should have equivalent facilities to the trains they replace, and transfer between bus and train should be seamless (your luggage transported, your bicycles and prams accepted etc.etc)
11) In general there should be greater cooperation between the franchisee and Network Rail and other rail companies such as GWR over engineering possessions, diversions, how a passenger’s journey is impacted by a delay – just passing the buck is not good enough.
12) There should be proper connections between west wales trains and HOW trains at Llanelli (currently, Pembrokeshire passengers are directed to go through Llanelli to Swansea, have a coffee and come back an hour or more later on a HOW train). Llanelli is more of a hub than Swansea, but it doesn’t have hub connections!
13) Improve bus-rail time connections in Pembrokeshire, for example Milford to Neyland or Johnston to Neyland
14) We seem to be the only Welsh Community Rail partnership without a community rail officer – we would like one again please.
15) We are pleased that Traws Cymru has at last reached Pembrokeshire in the shape of the T5 bus, and look for further developments
16) The recent Swansea district transport strategy proposes a Blackbridge Port road link. Ensure that this is a valid response to a particular transport need – there are various rail links that could be made as alternative solutions to particular needs.