Made a trip over the bridge to one of the in person events.
So I asked a few questions.
1)cost 250 to 300 million pounds
2)time line for completion 2029
3)Cardiff Parkway is at an environment appeal stage and will be the only station which will have ticket gates installed
In the past few days population increase for England Scotland Northern Ireland and Wales has been published.
England 6 per cent increase
Scotland 5 per cent increase
N.I. 4 per cent increase
Wales ONE per cent increase
Maybe its not that people in Wales are not using the train,
maybe there ain't the passengers in wales anymore, and they have now moved away from Wales.
There are still plenty of people - around 1.5 million people in the Cardiff City Region, something like 40% of the Welsh population and growing. Swansea Bay adds another 600k.
Investments in rail seem well justified - the geography is well suited to it, plenty of workers, countryside and reasonably priced property ripe for gentrification. A long time ago I rather tongue-in-cheek suggested that the English Conservatives should happily pay for electrification of the railways of South Wales to turn them into commuter belt and break the stronghold of Labour - looks like the Welsh Assembly might be doing it for them.
As for migration, interesting piece here on why Welsh kids leave
https://news.sky.com/story/why-young-welsh-people-are-leaving-the-places-they-grew-up-in-to-live-elsewhere-12970170, whilst the rhetoric around incomers and second home owners plus tax penalties is off-putting to anyone thinking of moving to Wales (e.g. Unlike England, the additional 3% stamp duty and CGT on sale applies if you have an existing property anywhere in the world). Of course it's up to the Welsh what rules they enact.
Anyway, will be great to see the new network, and hopefully a similar treatment for Bristol's railways won't be too far behind.
