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Metro

if it's about Cardiff.. Sport, Entertainment, Transportation, Business, Development Projects, Leisure, Eating, Drinking, Nightlife, Shopping, Train Spotting! etc.. then we want it here!
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murfilicious

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Re: Metro

PostThu Feb 12, 2015 9:46 am

another day, another pointless report on the Cardiff Capital Region which mentions the Metro and how "vital" it is to economic growth blah blah blah...
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/incoming/a ... my_Eng.pdf

Nothing ground breaking in it, although the revised network plan no longer shows the reopened railway line through Plasdwr, nor is it mentioned...
Some days you are the pigeon and some days you are the statue...
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Kyle

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Re: Metro

PostThu Feb 12, 2015 11:00 am

Someone else agrees with us I think

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/its-time-serious-city-regioins-8627916

It's complicated because of all the organisations involved and from my experience working on government and other public organisation IT projects I know it can be a real pain to get a number of different organisations to agree on ANYTHING, in fact it's a bloody nightmare !

I would be partly content if the Welsh Government or someone else come out and said 'We are currently doing A, B and C to sort out a brand for the transport system, we are talking to Arriva Trains Wales, Cardiff Bus, Newport Bus etc. hoping to set-up a Transport for London like body on which we'll update you on progress every month, likewise a unified ticketing system, integrated timetables etc.
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Karl

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Re: Metro

PostThu Feb 12, 2015 11:17 am

It's hard not to be cynical. The report states that the 'task and finish' group was set up in 2011. So 4 years down the line we now have a report full of uncosted aspirations. I think I could have written it. I'm more than adept at day dreaming about what I want to happen in Cardiff and beyond without actually coming up with anything of substance. I do it on a daily basis on this esteemed forum.
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RandomComment

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Re: Metro

PostThu Feb 12, 2015 12:24 pm

Are you sure it doesn't include the new line from Fairwater to Creigau? The following BBC article shows it in Yellow, and linking up via Talbot Greent to Pontyclun.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-31418603
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Barden

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Re: Metro

PostThu Feb 12, 2015 12:37 pm

Yep, all very aspirational, but little evidence of progress or actual mechanisms for delivery. I'm sure we could all have written something similar.

What strikes me is the apparent (to me) lack of transparency. The only link to the report I could see is via Wales Online. I have just spent 10 minutes googling for the CCR website. Any ideas? The report says that there have been monthly meetings. Are there agendas and minutes available?

I am a huge supporter of regional planning. It also needs time to do this. But the seemingly absent display of progress does cause concern.
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RandomComment

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Re: Metro

PostThu Feb 12, 2015 12:42 pm

You think they'd choose a new photo for their new report - that shot over Cardiff is about 9 years old!! Celestia, Century Wharf, Meridian Gate all incomplete. The old Ice Rink looks like its still there (so St Davids 2 is absent). No 3, 4, 5 Callaghan Square, or 3 Assembly Square.

Jantra

Re: Metro

PostThu Feb 12, 2015 12:42 pm

what is surprising is that people are surprised by the lack of progress. This is the UK public sector we are talking about. it is far better to spend money on consultations, papers, studies and so on so boxes can be ticked and processes can be completed rather than actually delivering any meaningful tangible result.

We will still be talking about this in ten years time unless Leighton Andrews has a moment of clarity and forces the reorganisation of the ten councils into one single LA killing two birds with one stone.
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RandomComment

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Re: Metro

PostThu Feb 12, 2015 12:48 pm

In fact the report is littered with sloppy errors. Some minor like labelling a picture of 2 people at home looking at a computer "Admiral Insurance, Cardiff Enterprise Zone"; others more significant, like getting the graph of GVA per person completely buggered up; getting the in-flow and out-flow the wrong way around on the graph of commuter flows!

Other things are weird - like saying all of NI is part of the "Belfast city region".

These kinds of things bother me.. it smacks of unprofessionalism!

Jantra

Re: Metro

PostThu Feb 12, 2015 12:56 pm

Jantra wrote:This is the UK public sector we are talking about


RandomComment wrote:it smacks of unprofessionalism!


exactly. if you read the article there was plenty of to-ing and fro-ing between the civil servants and interested parties. These people forget they are there solely to serve the public and not to tick boxes or ensure their own little fiefdoms are protected. the UK public sector is a shambles of a farce.
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RandomComment

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Re: Metro

PostThu Feb 12, 2015 1:02 pm

Jantra - as always you over-egg things. Where there is political will and money things get done - look at the big changes in Education in England; or the quick turnaround with Scottish devolution; or reforms to University funding; or changes to local funding in England. The civil service is certainly slow and ponderous in some respects - I have to deal with this in my job as a researcher - but staff there are (in an international context) uncorrupt, and actually fairly good.

The problem with this is that the Metro plans require lots of money that doesn't exist. Therefore the imperative is to talk to show they are "doing something". Its the political imperative we as voters give them. If they don't talk, they don't care, or don't have ambition. So they talk. And put out press releases every few months to show they haven't given up on the idea.

Sometimes you make sensible points. But your extreme Richard Littlejohn-esque rants about the public sector are a parody of you at your best and most sensible.
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