Written evidence submitted by Mr David Morgan (IRP0078)

I would like to comment on the impact of the IRP on my own area, namely Pen Llyn and more widely South Gwynedd. As it stands at the moment I find that the link between Bangor (in North Gwynedd) and Manchester, Birmingham, London etc is perfectly adequate for my needs without any further improvement - or at least it would be if I had a rail connection to Bangor. Of course I don't. Nor do I have a connection to South Wales ( and in particular to Swansea where I have family) except via the interminable journey through mid-Wales to Shrewsbury etc and from there via Hereford, etc. I lack a connection both to the North and to the South, and any of the planned improvements to the North Wales mainline or in the West Midlands, or indeed in South-East Wales, are superfluous to my requirements.

In other words, the IRP ignores the problem of an almost complete lack of North-South connectivity along the Western seaboard of Wales, and certainly does nor represent equity between West Wales and the rest of the UK, or indeed within Wales itself.

Just as an anecdotic example, I recently set out for a meeting in Cardiff, first by car, then by rail from Bangor, but because of an incident on the line in Hereford, I was diverted on a slow train to Birmingham, at which point I was already too late for my meeting and was obliged to return home. Connectivity? Almost nil. Equity? Absolutely nil. And what will become of us as the green agenda forces us to adapt? We need a genuinely national rail service, both in Wales and in the UK generally, not vanity projects like HS2.

January 2022