Swansea Bay and Western Valleys Metro

Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 11:59 am on 15 July 2020.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 11:59, 15 July 2020

Well, I share the Member's interest in getting this proposal accelerated. I've had a long interest in developing a Swansea bay metro and I am frustrated at the progress to date. It's one the reasons why we've asked Transport for Wales, as part of the remit letter, to take a role in developing these proposals forward. There has, as I say, been work going on within the region by the local authorities themselves, and they have developed an initial package of measures, including new long-distance and local metro rail services along the currently under-utilised Swansea district line, which would offer reduced journey times from west Wales to Swansea and Cardiff and across the border.

The new metro service would, via new rail infrastructure and a number of new stations and strategic park-and-ride sites, connect Swansea, Neath and Llanelli together better. We're also, as part of it, looking at enhancing the expanding bus services in the Swansea bay region. And I agree with Dai Lloyd that that also needs to include light rail. Clearly, the Swansea bay context is different from the central Valleys metro context, where there already is far greater rail coverage and infrastructure. And to make a metro meaningful as a turn-up-and-go service in the south-west would need to go beyond looking at heavy rail, and a mixture of light rail, bus rapid transport, active travel and bus prioritisation measures.