 Hello, and welcome to the Public Consultation for the Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro project. Welsh Government, Transport for Wales, Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea Councils are working together to develop plans for improved public transport in the region. This consultation is for you to comment on the rail options that are being looked at. The current Covid-19 restrictions mean we can't hold local community events as we'd like. However, we hope you still find this presentation an online questionnaire useful. What is Metro? There's a Metro programme across Wales which is developing regional integrated public transport systems. Metro plans are being developed for north Wales and south Wales and plans are being developed for Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro too. The idea is that different transport modes such as rail, bus and active travel, walking and cycling, can create an integrated transport network. The plans are all about making it easier to travel by public transport. 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. The area being looked at for this study includes the counties of Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea. The map shows these along with the existing rail network. Existing rail services include a combination of long distance and more local services. There is an hourly service from London to Swansea with some services extending to Carmarthen. Hourly services also operate from Manchester to Carmarthen with every other train extended to Milford Haven. The heart of Wales line sees four trains per day between Swansea and Shrewsbury with an additional train from Swansea to Flandewry. Services also operate from Swansea to Pembroke Dock every two hours and seven trains a day travel from Swansea to Fishguard Harbour. There are also local services from Cardiff to Swansea although these are less than every two hours. The abbreviation TPH in the diagram means trains per hour so one TPH is an hourly service and 0.5 TPH is a two hourly service. Previous workers identified the need for service improvements to address several issues with the current rail services. These include the fact that rail journeys, particularly from West Wales, take a lot longer than car journeys. There are limited long distance through train services from West Wales. There are also low frequencies of trains on both the West Wales branches and of direct trains to Swansea from the east. Services are not considered particularly useful for commuting into Swansea as times and frequencies don't suit working hours. These are some of the issues that the Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro aims to address. The Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro work is being carried out in line with the current Welsh transport appraisal guidance, commonly referred to as Weltag. At stage one a long list of options are identified and these are assessed to ensure that they meet the aims of national and local policy requirements. Any that don't meet the aims or have obvious technical or operational obstacles are removed at this stage. A shortlist is then produced with the options that can move on to stage two. At stage two the shortlisted options are considered in more detail with costs and benefits identified. At the end of stage two a preferred option or package of options are identified. The idea is that this package of measures will then be taken forward for full business case assessment at Weltag stage three where detailed design is carried out and funding applications are made. If funding is awarded the package of measures moves on to stage four and construction begins. Stage five evaluates how successful measures are once they are completed and operational. Each of the options are assessed against several project aims and we also have to look at the national, regional and local policy and wellbeing requirement too. The objectives have been split into those appropriate to the south Wales mainline and those more specific to Swansea Bay and west Wales metro. There are however similar themes across all work programmes such as reducing journey times, increasing frequency, reducing use of the M4, providing park and ride opportunities, increasing connections to local and long distance destinations, improving interchange and integration, accelerating regeneration and development, increasing public transport use, reducing transport's environmental impact and improving efficiency of the rail network. For example if a service needs 2.1 trains to operate three trains will be allocated with some idle time. A shorter journey time may reduce this to two trains freeing up the third train to provide additional frequency at no extra cost. To make it easier to review the options they have been grouped into three main areas. One, long distance services on the south Wales mainline and associated infrastructure. Two, frequency and connectivity improvements for west Wales and the Swansea Bay area and three, new stations and station improvements. Options in each of these categories will now be discussed in a little more detail. The options that have been identified for long distance services are option one, which would see services from London Paddington which currently terminate at Cardiff, extended to Swansea to provide a half hourly service. Option two, which would extend the existing hourly Taunton Bristol Temple Meads Cardiff service to Camarthen or Milford Haven. This could be via Swansea or using the Swansea District Line and could be provided with or without a new West Wales Parkway station at Melinda. Option three, which would extend the one London to Camarthen train a day to either Haverford West or Milford Haven. Option four, which considers a new service from Milford Haven to Bristol with trains every two hours. Option five, which reviews the potential Grand Union trains open access application which would initially provide two trains a day from London to Cardiff but could be extended to Camarthen in future with up to six trains. Option six, which reviews line speeds on the south Wales mainline west of Cardiff. This would have no impact on frequency but has the potential to speed up journeys. And option 26, which looks at the opportunity to fully electrify the Swansea Bay and West Wales metro. Again, this would not necessarily impact on frequency but would reduce the environmental impact of services and speed up journeys. The service diagram summarises the potential pattern of future rail services resulting from the options we've talked about. None of these options are direct alternatives and could potentially be provided together as a package subject to timetable and infrastructure capacity constraints. The options identified for regional West Wales frequency and connectivity are option seven, which would provide a local service between Swansea or Camarthen and Milford Haven every two hours. This would sit in the alternate time slot to the existing Manchester Milford Haven trains providing an hourly service overall on the branch. Option eight, which would extend the Manchester services which currently terminate at Camarthen to provide an hourly service to Milford Haven. Option nine, which introduces additional trains between Swansea and Pembroke Dock, which would run in alternate hours to the current service and provide an hourly service overall. Option 10, which considered extending the existing two-hourly Manchester to Camarthen service to Pembroke Dock, which in combination with the existing two-hourly Swansea to Pembroke Dock trains gives an hourly frequency. This option does have timetabling difficulties as it's not possible to get back to the South Wales mainline in time to retain the current time slot back to Manchester. Option 11, which would reconfigure the current Swansea to Fishguard Harbour services to an even two-hourly pattern and add two trains a day to ensure services run throughout the full day. Option 27, which looks at providing additional trains at two-hourly intervals between Swansea and Cardiff or Bridgend to provide an hourly service overall. Option 28, which would see an additional service on the southern end of the heart of Walesline. This is in addition to the extra train that Transport for Wales have already committed to providing. The daily frequency would then be five trains from Swansea to Shrewsbury and two trains to Fandewry. The options are illustrated on this diagram. In reality, a number of these options could be included in a package to improve the services in West Wales. Option 7 and 8 are direct alternatives. Options 9 and 10 are also alternatives, but option 10 may not be viable due to timetabling issues. Several routes and new stations were considered to improve frequency and connectivity in the Swansea Bay area. These are all assumed to have an initial service every 30 minutes. Most of them could be served by traditional rail services or in combination with option 26 could operate as electric or tram train. Option 12 sees a new route between Swansea and Ponta de Lais via Neath using the Swansea district line. This has several new stations that could potentially be provided, including Tlandarsie, option 22, Landaw, option 23, Winchwen, option 24a, Morriston, option 24b, Velindra, option 24c, Pentlegair or Pentlu, options 24d1 or 24d2. It would also stop at the existing Skewan and Lansamlet stations. A digital infrastructure is required to connect the Swansea district line to the South Wales mainline at Quartz Sartre to allow all movements at this junction. Option 13 looks at a service between Swansea and Pembroke and Berryport via a new station at Cockett, also stopping at existing stations at Llanelli and Gowarton. Option 14 would provide new track at Llandilo junction to connect the South Wales mainline with the Swansea district line, which would allow the service from Swansea to the heart of Wales line to avoid Llanelli and take a more direct and quicker route. Option 15 looks at introducing passenger services on the branch from Amonford to Gwaincaigodwain, which is currently Freitoni line. Option 16 would introduce passenger services between Neath and Onfloyne, again on a Freitoni branch. This would require an additional new station at Neath. Option 17 would provide services on the Vale of Neath line between Neath and Cwmgorach. Again, a new station at Neath would be required. Option 28 would link Neath with Swansea city centre via the docks and a new station at Llandarsi. This line would need to be operated as tram train, as a section through the docks doesn't have any existing track. Option 19 would add a link from the Swansea district line to Cwmgorach. Option 20 would provide a link from Cwmgorach to Hirwain. This would be dependent on option 17 already being complete, and also a link from Hirwain South. There are significant infrastructure costs associated with this option, as it requires completely new track to create the link. It is therefore considered a long-term option. The Swansea bay routes and stations are illustrated in this diagram. The options could be developed as a package, although most new stations don't have an existing rail service, so couldn't be built on their own. Most routes have an associated infrastructure requirement, where there are gaps in the current rail network. Improvements to several key stations are also proposed. Option 25A looks at providing parking improvements at Cmarthen station. Option 25B focuses on providing better access between platforms at Pemberhambury Port. Option 25C proposes improved access, parking and interchange at Whitland. Option 25D considers parking at Llandarsi, where an accessible bridge is already being provided by Network Rail. Option 25E reviews access and interchange at Neath station. Option 25F focuses on improving access to the town centre and interchange at Milford Haven. Option 21 also considers a new station at St Clairs. This station has now been awarded funding from the Department for Transport. The location of the stations with proposed improvements and the new St Clairs station are shown on this diagram. All these stations are on the existing rail network and don't require any new services. Again, they are not direct alternatives to each other and could be packaged together for maximum impact. Thank you for taking the time to look at this presentation. Your feedback on the proposals is important to us and will help shape the way your transport network is built and delivered. To have your say, please complete the question you're provided. We'd like to know which of the proposals would make most difference to you and your travel habits, whether you're an existing rail user or not. Once the consultation has closed, the responses will be reviewed and a summary will be published along with answers to any questions raised. We hope this presentation has been useful and thank you again for your time. Goodbye.