On the wrong track

A consultation process has recommended significant investment to the railway network currently serving North Wales. Rather than looking beyond the current rails, they have predictably highlighted the need to add to what is already there.

With a population of approximately 675,000 people, North Wales is a very rural area which sees many of residents isolated by inadequate public transport links. Granted, much of the population resides on the coast within easy reach of the current railway. They are not the problem here. It is the people living inland who need to be considered if North Wales is at last to be treated with the seriousness which it deserves.

Achieving this goal needn't be overly taxing on the consultants. Up until the Beeching Report, most North Wales towns were served by branch lines which also included stops in a great many villages. If the need to reconnect with these towns and villages was properly recognised, it would not take much to reverse the effects of the branch line closures of the 1960s. This has been mooted periodically in the intervening years but nobody thus far has seemed willing to grasp the nettle.

Let there be no doubt about the demand for such a move. Residents living away from the coast are all but confined to their towns and villages if they don't drive. The fact that our road system is so clogged up is due to the necessity to drive. It doesn't have to be this way. The Railway is a far more effective and efficient solution to our transport problem. I don't propose the abolition of cars because they obviously have an important role to play.

Looking East from where I live, I see a shining example of what can happen. The steam railway in Llangollen is principally run as a tourist attraction for enthusiasts but it has surpassed the expectations of many in recent years. As I write, it approaches Corwen with several stops en route which pepper the course of the historic A5 road. It wasn't so long ago that a person could board a train in Rhyl bound for Denbigh. They could then change trains in Denbigh to travel down the Vale of Clwyd and the Edeyrnion Valley to Corwen.

Being honest, driving where I live is not a particularly pleasant experience. Then again, this is true for just about every other part of Britain today. As the cost of petrol becomes prohibitive to many, it seems to make sense to me to address the provision of public transport.

Its all well and good calling for a direct line connecting North Wales to Liverpool but the existing arrangement with changes at Chester is perfectly acceptable. You seldom have to wait long and the service is reliable and reasonably well run. The bus services locally are at best disappointing and at worst expensive. They would be better served if they had a local railway service running alongside them so that all villages become accessible. If the political will was there, this project could be undertaken and completed within a decade. Of course, it would provide some temporary jobs during that construction period but more importantly it would provide a permanent solution to our existing dilemma.