South Wales Metro — old connections, new opportunity
The plans for a new Metro rail network could help build a stronger sense of identity across an entire region.
As a child, we would often head off for a family holiday somewhere in Wales. When the route took us north we’d encounter endless rows of terraced houses as we passed through village after village — each with its own history, community and range of industrial specialisms and all with their own infrastructure of chapels, shops, clubs and cafés. The names became familiar signposts on the long journey north — Pontypridd, Cilfynydd, Quakers Yard, Troedyrhiw, Pentrebach. Today, the journey by-passes all these places; a quick dash up the A470 and you’re whizzing past Merthyr before you know it, and out into the wide open spaces of the Brecon Beacons. It’s all good, right? Well no, maybe not all good.
With the advance of the trunk road network — what we’ve gained in speed and efficiency, we’ve often lost in the physical and emotional connections to the communities that underpinned the growth of South Wales. A trip today through Gwent is perhaps the best example of loss of connection with real places — roundabouts and dual carriageways by-pass all traces of life, and transport us to our final destination, oblivious to the living chains of villages that populate the area.
But all is not lost. One way that still preserves these connections is the railway. The prospect of a revitalised South East Wales network — under the Metro banner — is a chance to re-energise existing links and build new ones — physical, social, economic and cultural — between all the places that helped make us who we are. This is the real opportunity of the Metro project; to unlock the energy and dynamism of the wider capital region and to build a new understanding of our shared identity.
Yes, the vast majority of arguments for the Metro focus on the ‘economic impact’, and it’s true that many thousands will benefit from having a better transport network to take up all kinds of employment opportunities; companies will make location decisions based around access to the Metro network; people may choose where to live based on similar principles. This is to be welcomed.
But if the Metro is to be a real success, we must develop ways of measuring its impact that go beyond pure economics. When we draw a map of places linked together by a rail network we create opportunities to form all manner of connections. We unlock access to open spaces, historic places, cultural activity, and to places of health, leisure and learning. Surely, the real test of success will not be how many people might pour into Cardiff and Newport everyday, but rather how many people use the Metro to venture out of these places and to move across the wider capital region; to explore, to discover, to really belong. It should be entirely normal to pop from Barry to Aberdare for a bite to eat, from Newport to Nelson for a walk or from Cathays to Merthyr for a gig. It’s not just about getting into Cardiff for work.
Cardiff — and Newport — only grew to become what the are because of their ability to provide marine gateways to a global market for the geological bounty that lay beneath our feet. People flocked to the region to take advantage of this carbon inheritance — miners, engineers, railway workers, steelworkers, pilots and dock hands. That inheritance is now spent.
Today, as we look to build new engines of growth, the Metro will be a vital artery to carry that oxygen of opportunity to all. Yes, it has important economic potential, but it also has the power to bring us all together — to improve our understanding of one another, to strengthen our identity. Those names on the map are far more than just station names — they are all the connected pieces of history and meaning that helped shape our identities. With the right vision and ambition, the Metro can unlock that history for all of us, while at the same time adding layer upon layer of new meaning and opportunity. That’s a journey I’m looking forward to take.
