Labour MS calls for action to ease M4 congestion
Emily Price
A backbench Labour MS has urged governments in Wales and Westminster to work together to progress the recommendations of a report which suggested alternatives to an M4 relief road.
In June 2019 former First Minister Mark Drakeford announced that plans for a new motorway on the M4 corridor around Newport would not proceed because of its cost and impact on the environment.
This was despite the independent inspector’s public inquiry concluding that there was a compelling case for such a scheme.
The £1.6bn motorway would have seen a 14-mile six lane stretch of road built as a gateway into south Wales in a bid to tackle congestion.
Damage
Mark Drakeford said he would never have gone ahead with the scheme because of the environmental damage it would have caused to the Gwent Levels – a sensitive wetlands area.
The decision was welcomed by environmental campaigners but criticised by the former Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns.
At the time, Newport West Labour Assembly Member Jayne Bryant said the decision condemned Newport to “further decades of heavy congestion, idling traffic and toxic fumes”.
The Burns Commission was tasked with making recommendations on a “suite of alternative solutions” to the congestion experienced on the M4 corridor.
The final suggestions centred around public transport to be delivered through five packages: infrastructure, network policies, behaviour change, governance, and land use and planning.
Labour’s John Griffiths says that with a new Labour Government in power in Westminster, it’s time to move ahead with the recommendations – including five new rail stations between Seven Tunnel Junction and Cardiff.
The Newport East MS said: “Now we have Labour governments at both ends of the M4, we have a real opportunity to deliver on the recommendations set out in the Burns report.
“This includes the five new rail stations, including Magor, Llanwern and Somerton, which would bring thousands of my Newport East constituents within walking and cycling distance of a new railway station.
“Given the positive comments by the Secretary of State for Transport, who has said investment in active travel will be unprecedented, I hope the Burns work can be one of the top priorities for her and Ken Skates in this renewed partnership between the two governments.”
Priorities
Last week Wales’ transport secretary met with UK Government Rail Minister, Lord Hendy to discuss the Welsh Government’s priorities for UK rail reform.
The pair said they had pledged to “work in partnership” to reform the railway, improve infrastructure, and deliver better services for passengers.
Welcoming this initial meeting, Mr Griffiths said: “After fourteen wasted years under the previous UK Tory Government, we must see renewed action to deliver infrastructure improvements that have the potential to transform Newport and the wider South East region.”
The UK Government did not wish to respond to Mr Griffiths’ comments at this time.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We’ve committed to working in partnership with UK Government to shape a bright future for rail in Wales.
“This includes developing and agreeing a pipeline of rail infrastructure enhancements across Wales via the Wales Rail Board.”
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Ah, the Welsh Government, truly the paragon of logistical genius! Who could forget ‘Flakey Drakey’ heroically putting a stop to any new road-building projects because, obviously, the best way to tackle congestion is to, well, not build any roads. Outside Cardiff and Swansea, the public transport options are so robust that the sheep are considering carpooling. And let’s not forget the pièce de résistance: a whopping £137.5 million spent on the M4 relief road around the Brynglas Tunnels, where the only relief seems to be that they didn’t accidentally build a road by mistake! It’s comforting to know that while… Read more »
Why exclude Cardiff? Our public transport system is dire too
Ironically it is the best in Wales though. Let that sink in for a moment and then consider what it’s like for the rest of us.
And clutter up the countryside with windfarms/pylons and solar…
The obvious answer is to make it easier and cheaper to take the bus or train. If you integrate that with active travel infrastructure it has the potential to take a whole heap of traffic off the roads. Much better then for those who need to use their cars. Congestion is the price we pay for not investing in public transport.
The £millions spent on the 20mph and increasing the members at The Senedd would certainly be better spent on public transport for those living in the countryside. The roads that have had some maintenance on them are showing signs of breaking up in a very short period.if it is a result of cost cutting in materials used then serious questions need to be asked of those signing off the jobs!!
Cheap reliable public transport. Sort that first. Build more lanes and you will just get bigger jams.
While it is true that higher road capacity increases the number of vehicles, the problem is that we are getting neither higher capacity roads nor investment in alternatives. This is a slight tangent, but contrary to what many people continue to believe, public transport isn’t exactly a utopian paradise in Cardiff. If you’re close in to the city centre then usually you’re fine… but only a small percentage of people live close to the city centre. Most live further out where the housing is not only larger but more affordable. Out where I live, if you catch a bus you’re… Read more »
At lunch time on a recent Friday it took me 50 minutes on the bus to get from the centre of Cardiff to the University Hospital of Wales. If I had been well I could probably have walked there in the same time. I will never catch a bus again.
I can believe it. I used to work on Greyfriars Road, and the bus would routinely take an hour and a half to two hours to get home afterwards. In the weeks leading up to Christmas one year – prior to the pandemic – my motorcycle was off the road because of punctures; foolishly, I decided to get the bus back & fore instead. After well over an hour and a half of not even being able to get on a bus home, I gave up – I got a taxi instead. Had my motorbike been on the road, that… Read more »
I’m lucky to live near Heath station in Cardiff so the train is a good, quick option into town. But the day I mentioned there was a problem on the line so no trains.
Choose the wrong time and you can be queuing for an hour and half to get in (or out) of the St Davids or John Lewis car parks. Made the mistake, last Xmas, of dropping someone off near the museum and then it took a hour to get to Penarth.
There are just too many cars now compared to the 1990s and the whole of the UK is tipped into grid lock, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester etc etc
I’ve experienced similar myself while attending gigs at the arena (Motopoint… Utilita… whatever it’s being called these days…). The worst we had was waiting about an hour before we could even pull out of the bay we’d parked in, never mind getting out of the car park and driving back home. Most people living anywhere near town centre know how bad it can get around Christmas and when there are events taking. I used to live opposite the stadium, on the other side of the river, and it was absolute chaos on match days or event days. Outside those times,… Read more »
The bus service for those living close to the centre of Cardiff is also dire. I live 1.5 miles from the centre, the buses are once an hour through the day, when they turn up, and they stop at 7.45pm. Hopeless and expensive
I’d heard it had got a lot worse since the pandemic, but that’s pretty atrocious.
The Brynglas tunnels are like a foot on the throat of the Welsh economy. Any company looking to invest in building a factory in either South Wales or Bristol is far more likely to choose Bristol. The M4 between the bridge and the Cardiff side of the tunnels is like a car park every afternoon, as evidenced by staff at The Celtic Manor which overlooks the motorway. The relief road should have been built and Mark Drakeford should not have been allowed to veto it, solely on his say so. It’s a total embarrassment every time there is a big… Read more »
Everytime more lanes are added, more cars appear to push the capacity. Anyone using the M25 knows that. The seriously disturbed relationship peopel have with cars is a huge issue on health. Watched a great video pointing out all junctions are now designed to go fast in and out of them. That crossing roads is low priority to cars whizzing past. Box in Newport and cover the flats, just going to create more pollution and the arrogance of humans over wildlife worse. Better public transport is needed. Everytime I trave it feels the car is not that important to others.… Read more »
> “ The seriously disturbed relationship peopel have with cars is a huge issue on health.” So, time for a little story. I don’t expect many to read all of this, but I’m posting it nonetheless. After I failed at university, I came back home to Pont-y-pŵl in 2003 with a mountain of debt. I needed to be earning money as soon as possible. I sent out many many job applications, and the job I happened to secure was on the western edge of Casnewydd. At the time I didn’t drive, so public transport was my only option. About a… Read more »
This issue gets far worse when you factor in the several roadworks currently on the M4 including the bridge which conveniently started when schools closed for summer holidays. Fantastic timing from the relevant planners! These last two Fridays alone took a whopping six infuriating hours each to get from London to Cardiff whereby it only ever took me about 2.5 to 3 hours. Both occasions now I have suffered lower back issues from sitting so long. On top of that every holidaygoer from England feels the need to treat Wales like their own personal Holiday Inn because God only knows… Read more »
I hope the resounding public silence of the Welsh govt on the m/billions Wales has been cheated of over the HS2 scheme means that they have pressed Westminster hard in private on financing the schemes proposed in the Burns report – AND on making public transport affordable.
Nothing to do with HS2 this problem was happening long before HS2 and ignored by Welsh Labour .
No doubt she is worried about getting kicked out of the Senedd in the 2026 elections & having to do a proper job instead…..
Protesters against M4 relief road at Newport live on another planet with the Welsh Government. The congestion now is the worst it has ever been , the public are being mislead just to save money. Businesses will soon make decisions to move as transport between the capital of Wales and its major port are disappearing. Holdups on M4 are beyond talking about . It’s nothing to do with local transport , Rail connection makes no difference to business. Who will suffer not bloody minded politicians only the public.
All you end up with is a bigger car park, a bill that is likely to go well north of 1.6 billion and permanently ruin the gwent levels. Once you start you cannot stop so how high will it so, 1.65 billion? 2 billion? 3? Given the nature of the land and mitigations they will have to put in for water run off, it will be 50mph, etc.
Still, free ports coming to save wales. The Tory party said so.
There’s no going back now but the Cons rush to cut the tolls was a wasted opportunity because they could’ve just cut them during off peak hours to help spread demand, and then used the extra revenue to speed up the rail upgrade. Five years later and there’s not one new station anywhere along the South Wales Main Line.
Simple arithmetic shows that the realistic potential throughput of passengers at new stations would have a barely delectable effect on traffic volumes on the M4, even in the unlikely event that most of them were direct transfers.
While extra road capacity can create extra demand, increasing income levels are by far the largest factor pushing up car use.
While the M25 is congested there are lots of other new roads and bypasses which are not – so the effect is not inevitable,
Extra railway stations will be a waste of money if that’s the only change. People aren’t going to switch to rail travel unless the cost comes down significantly. At the moment, ticket prices are exorbitant. There’s also the issue that a lot of the traffic on the M4 isn’t going to the Newport East area, but further west. Until our rail infrastructure nationally is expanded, along with trains becoming much more reliable and ticket prices falling significantly, all of which will require significant investment that shows no sign of being forthcoming, most people will continue to rely on their cars… Read more »