. The RAIL article is telling the Kelois mobilization Director uses the phrase "we were clever" not TfW or WG and were able to show improvements pan Wales and Borders at the expense of going Light Rail loopy around Cardiff.I think we can add the caveat of reluctantly with some twists ( i.e no profits to be taken in first 5 years).
Competitive Dialogue= we don't actually have any plans for services just some generic broad brush aspirations? Help us as were behind the game thanks to the previous Ministers obsession with ownership model?
Kelois winning bid details are on the same page in a lot of respect with the RUG's around Wales and the Borders surprisingly so. If WG left a void then the Rail User Groups have happily filled it, comparing what we got with SARPA's aspirations/plans it almost as though there cut and paste in lot of areas
However Kelois have been dealt a dud hand in the plan for PRM Compliance and Pacer extinction as they have had to inherit the plan what the Welsh Government signed up to this time last year which by all accounts is falling apart. (769's).
There is certainly a perception in the north that South Wales gets the lion’s share of any investment. In some cases that is justified I think, but in others it is not. There are also the historical differences, well aired on here, with north Wales traditionally looking to Liverpool (once regarded as the de facto capital of North Wales) and NW England, mid Wales looking to the midlands, and the South looking across the Severn. These are all a consequence of geography, which has cut the regions of Wales off from each other. The other divide is linguistically - there are a number of differences between the Welsh spoken in the North (which many of its proponents regard as being “purer”) and that spoken in the south.
Yes, Chester and Shrewsbury are both good for meetings, with Shrewsbury equidistant in time from Bangor and Cardiff (far better than Llandrindod Wells, which always seemed to be Welsh Govt’s preferred location). Problems arise sometimes with funding rules though not allowing meetings outside Wales, or certain parts of Wales.
Is that just a road v rail thing? Llandrindod is on the A483, with the A470 and A44 a couple of miles away, so it is pretty easy to get to by car from most of Wales, whereas Shrewsbury isn't that close to any of it.
Llandrindod is easy by road from South Wales, but a nightmare from up here. I did go there once by train as well, but it took for ever, as I’d guess it would from the south as well.
Or maybe it's because Shrewsbury is in E.....d?
Could it be that the extra two mean less likelihood of having to compensate first-class ticket holders in the event of a unit swap? Also provides a bit of cover for the Mk4s on Gerald if ever they're a set short.
A lot of people in North Wales, certainly the eastern parts are from Manchester/Liverpool themselves!
