Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro Consultation

11 June 2021

Welsh Government and Transport for Wales are working in partnership with Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea Councils to develop proposals for the Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro. The proposals are all about making it easier to travel, whether travelling by train, bus, bike or on foot. It’s about making it easier to get to work or school, to get to your hospital appointment or to get out and about in the evenings and weekends using public transport. These include increased frequency of long-distance strategic services, increased local services from West Wales to Carmarthen and Swansea, new stations and improvements to existing stations and development of a Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro network.

The consultation sought views on the options put forward, with a focus on those which have been shortlisted to be looked at in more detail at the next stage. The aim of the Metro approach being applied across Wales is to provide a series of regional integrated public transport systems. You can see more information about the consultation here.

Our response

We used evidence from our extensive research with transport users to inform our response. We also ensured our in-house expertise on the network and connection interdependencies was put forward to show some key considerations required prior to amending or enhancing timetables.

Key highlights:

• our research suggests there is room for improvement with some of the basic needs of passengers and this should be considered when planning any enhancements to service levels
• there will be some challenges in a post-pandemic world in terms of attracting people back to public transport, so sustained and meaningful dialogue with passengers and key stakeholders throughout the process is paramount
• the options to improve frequency of services towards West Wales can only be good for the economic prosperity of Wales but any drive to improve services must be supported by sufficient financial and physical resources.

You can see our full response below.