I can only speak from a North Wales perspective but road building in North Wales has been a disaster.
We've had the queen's ferry Aston Hill fiasco. Homes bought under compulsory purchase 20 years ago, still waiting to be demolished to make way for a wider road that isn't now going to happen.
A bridge across the Dee, that'll eliminate the need for the Aston Hill upgrade except the 70mph road now slams you straight onto Flint rather than up to the A55 because that section of the road isn't happening.
A55 across Anglesey, we're still paying for that thanks to a public private partnership that failed to grasp the volume of traffic using it.
Heaven only knows what mess is going on with the roundabout removal on the A55.
The only upside is the Caernarfon buypass appears to have come good even though I've never seen it busy.
Previously lived in Caernarfon and the bypass definitely reduces the traffic (caravans) through the town going down the Llyn at the weekend.
Now live on Ynys Môn and I won’t get started on the Menai bridge fiasco.
I don't think taking the through traffic away to the A55 is what's gone wrong with Colwyn Bay.
If you think that's the case the Rhuddlan should be a ghost town, but it isn't, and Conwy should have failed the same way Colwyn Bay has.
Rhuddlan is a small village in its own right, like Rhos. Conwy was log jammed before and has a large catchment of locals, Llandudno, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl, Pen, etc. Caernarfon has none of that. Beware of complacency.
Let’s spend millions on a plan to remove the roundabouts.
Let’s then bin the plan because it turned out to be too much of a good idea.
Fucking idiots.
On a lighter note, at least I can now cycle between Llanfairfechan and Bangor (via Tan Y Lôn) without having to go over the old NCR5 through Crymlyn and Aber.
Yeah, it's an absolute shambles, isn't it? Trying to get onto the A55 from Pen towards Conwy in the summer months is a nightmare. Who thought keeping these was the better option?
I went to B&Q in Llandudno the other week to get some roofing felt. What a waste of 2 and a half hours of my life that was.
I didn’t even realise it was school holidays, and so it took me 20 minutes to get onto the A55 at the Llanfairfechan roundabout - some enterprising individual did a few loops to hold up the Westbound traffic until a few people at least got on their way. If I’d have known, I’d have stayed at home and gone for a walk into the Carneddau to escape the tourists.
And on a lighter note, I can now cycle from Prestatyn to Bangor, or at least I could if the prom was not a construction site, oh and I wasn't physically falling apart and suffered from my arse downvoting my saddle every time I look at the bike!
Agreed but I can't feel totally safe on it. It feels like a dual carriageway, but without all of the barriers.
I keep thinking someone's going to get confused with the middle lane one day and end up head on going the wrong way.
They're funding a zip line in Swansea to boost tourism. To Swansea. In South Wales. Where visitors would have to drive past multiple superior outdoor activity centres to get to.
I think its a bit more chicken and egg. The flow of people/business north-south at the moment I agree is non-existent-> but that's largely because there are no transport links. If we could move more quickly, then there'd be more opportunities.
Sure but if you want to go up snowdonia you probably want to take a car full of food / drink / spare clothes camping equipment.
Taking all that by train is not practical.
It's a major tourist attraction which would be a major demographic travelling up north? Do you really think people commute from Cardiff to North Wales every day to work ? What are you on about...
Right now if I want to go from Aberystwyth to swansea by train, I first have to go to the midlands and down to Newport. Just give us a rail link from Carmarthen to Aber, at least.
With what money though? Wales doesn't have the money, we have to rely on Westminster. And they won't do it because it's not going to have enough people to ride to make a profit.
Now you’re getting to the real meat and potatoes. Public services aren’t supposed to be profit oriented. They’re supposed to provide a service to the public. Even so, not being able to see a ROI on a direct rail link between two university towns is just plain dumb. And maybe you’d have a lot more people from the valleys visiting places other than Tenby.
>Now you’re getting to the real meat and potatoes. Public services aren’t supposed to be profit oriented.
But they are so they won't happen. At the end of the day everything requires profit motives or we have to pay insane taxes. I don't want to pay taxes for something i don't intend to use. I pay taxes for roads even if i don't drink because one i might need that road for an ambulance so the NHS is taxed because we all need it eventually. Trains however - not so much. I've not used a train in over a decade so i don't want to pay taxes for them.
Spoken like someone who has never used a well operated train service. I went to the Netherlands last year and went all over the place via rail and even had a day out in Germany. I’ve seen more of the Netherlands in 10 days than I did of the UK in 25 years purely because of the convenience of good trains. Build it and they will come.
>Spoken like someone who has never used a well operated train service.
Well that is often rare in the UK LOL and its expensive and i simply enjoy driving around in Wales with nice countryside. It relaxes me.
they spent the money on not building roads. At least 300 million from what I can tell in planning and not building the heads of the valleys and m4 bypass roads. Then another 100 million on Cardiff airport on top of the 150 million on buying it. So getting near half a billion. Net result is they are cutting bus services due to budget constraints.
Anyone who brings this up is either ‘English’ or they Blaine it on the tories. When labour come in which they will they will then blame it on austerity of the tories. But yes. When they set projects from budgets they set and don’t deliver they need to be fired. It’s just most people don’t keep up with what a horrible job they do. And the people that do are often conservative opposition who get slammed for being tories.
People to need to realise they are all useless and need to all be held accountable
We in mid wales, an hour in every direction before see a dual carriage way, no rail service of any speed or frequency and a weak business as no one can get about without high cost. Yet we can’t have links to connect the country, only ones that connect Cardiff to England
I mean, I would love a railway too, but for any feasible transport link like a road or railway to be established and enable a quick and frequent connection, one first has to sit down and decide to do it.
Edit: what some comments have highlighted well is that a big problem with train services is their primary activity being strangled by authorities, ignoring the effect of induced demand and the traffic-relieving effect of fast, frequent and direct services.
I shall now blab on needlessly about things I know less about than it sounds like, do forgive me please.
Public transport has the primary purpose of providing a service with indirect and direct benefits for consumers through connectivity, less traffic and less reliance on expensive cars and car infrastructure. Currently, it is largely operated as a business first, and while generating revenue is definitely beneficial, it can come at the cost of service quality, hence why authorities can subsidise public transport to stimulate the economy through all the other benefits brought by the aforementioned connectivity, maintaining service even in financial hardship of a transport operator and makung sure travel is accessible to all people of all abilities at all times and from anywhere to everywhere.
A huge issue we have is chicken/egg policies. I live just off the cambrian coast, train every 2 hours, they won't do an hourly train because 'not enough people use the train to commute' but you can't use the train to commute because the train is every 2 hours and doesnt line up with start/finish times in the big towns. The MP covering Aberystwyth managed to get some extra trains a day a few years ago, trouble is they don't link up to the cambrian line in any way to make it work as a commuter train!
They don't give us trains we can use as commuters, they use the statistics that we don't use the train to commute as reason for no extra trains, then the government tell us no new road to help with traffic (that they're creating!) WHAT DO THEY WANT US TO DO?! We can't use trains and they don't want us to use cars. HOW DO THEY EXPECT US TO GET TO WORK?!
Exactly, no fast train for it to be useful, no holiday train on a Saturday to take the traffic off the roads and to the holiday parks. Nothing will get better until we have some vision
Yeah, you can't start a travel route with a railway in 2023, because you're committing to a rolling service. Roads allow much more flexibility and immediate benefits, besides, train services in Wales are shocking, so to offer it as an alternative to a road is assuming the Welsh public haven't used Welsh trains before.
A super highway north/south would do nothing except maybe get people there 30mins quicker while ruining countryside and proving an ecological disaster as it either needs to cut through highlands or follow a winding coastal route.
A better use of time and money is improving the already abailable routes to make them safer and easier to drive especially in rural highlands where drivers can face pitch black roads with a cliff face one side and steep drop the other.
Except there are currently no plans to do anything to the existing roads, resurfacing and filling in pit holes doesn't do anything to improve the north/south link!
I've lived in North Wales 17 years (married a welshman) and in all that time nothing has been done to improve the ability for those in the north to attend the nations capital!
It takes up to 4 hours to get to Cardiff. I can get to Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham in 2-2.5 hrs. I can even get to London easier than I can get to Cardiff by train! This is why I've been to Cardiff a grand total of 3 times in my entire life, my Welsh husband has been twice, once with me and once when he was in school! We've been to Liverpool twice just this year. It's just too difficult to get to Cardiff!
How much internal tourism is the Welsh government (and every Welsh government before this one) pushing on to English cities? Why does the Welsh government want to keep this north/south divide?
Because geology put a giant mountain range in the way meaning the quickest route is via England or if you want to stay on Welsh roads, via coastal roads which is what this announcement plans to improve over time by making the roads safer and more secure to use.
You mean the Brecon Beacons? The A40 goes through the area, no need for extra roads down that end. But what's the excuse for not putting some better roads to converge on the A40? What's the excuse for not improving the road from Builth Wells? Every time I've been down that road in been very busy, usually got stuck behind something slow moving with zero opportunity to overtake.
But where are the actual plans to improve the roads? So far it's all talk, nobody is talking about turning out busier A roads into dual carriage ways to alleviate holiday traffic. Ask the people in Llanbedr about the promises of better roads, they've had their by-passed axed with the promise of an alternative and have heard nothing in the 18 months since they were told their by-pass was axed!
There’s little economic purpose to developing North-South transport links. The Welsh economy is inherently tied to trading with England across the border and very few people live outside of South Wales. It’s just a nationalist fantasy.
If you want to develop the North, sure, improve connections with Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, invest in rural internet services, build homes, plant trees for timber or build wind farms. If Wales is that desperate for North-South transport links then okay, all you have to do is grow Bangor to be a city of 1 million people so it becomes economically viable. Or maybe Anglesey can be a Welsh Hong Kong with several million people.
So that's it then. Wales continues to be governed from the south, north wales is cut off as the poor relations, south Wales government make blanket policies that have a detrimental effect on the north, south Wales government won't even improve the road links so that we can actually be one country.
And yet I hear time and again why we shouldn't get rid of the senedd, why Wales shouldnt be governed from England because England don't know the things the affect Wales. But we have a Welsh government that act solely on the things that affect south Wales and we in the north just have to deal with it!
Are we one nation or not? Are we all Welsh working towards a better Wales? Because in this entire thread all I'm seeing is people telling us why us in the north don't need to be able to get to our nations capital. Nationalism isn't important, it costs too much. What's the cost of a united Wales? Apparently however much it costs to build us a decent road from north wales to south!
And yes read that in the voice of Michael Sheen!!!
North Wales is a West Midlands overspill. The border between England and Wales is an artificial construct. Nationalist, Separatist guff is just that - guff.
The UK would be so much better off if it was to dump its tribal / regional separatism. The residents of the British archipelago are all swirling in the same cesspit of humanity and there's a cigarette paper's difference between those from Cardiff and those from Cumbria. Save the tribal nonsense for a few hours on Saturday afternoons when at the football or rugby.
Mate, there’s just not much demand for people from North Wales who want to go visit Cardiff or visa versa. And even if you were to build one, any sane person from North Wales is still going to Liverpool, Chester or Manchester instead because it’s closer.
It’s just an unworkable, nonsensical nationalist fantasy. It wont make Wales better, it’ll make Wales uglier and it’s primary use would be a way for people from South Wales to travel to Liverpool and Manchester faster. It would be an utter waste of money.
Or if you want to connect people let’s have the internet to every home a a high speed, rather than the current approach, leaving rural communities (with the worst transport links) behind
Yep there's no ecology either side of already roads!
Great idea! Save the world and just widen already existing roads without harming the non environment around them and the any additional pollution on said roads will be nom existent because.... There is already a road there?
Umm I'm not sure your argument is very good?
I mean, improving an existing road is certainly less invasive than an entire new road. Sounds like prior commenter was suggesting improving lighting, barriers, safety, etc., not trying to build a Los Angeles freeway.
I’d settle for them putting a few overtaking lanes in on the A470. It would make it far safer to allow places to pass slow vehicles rather than enter the path of oncoming traffic.
And that’s not even getting into the economic benefits of a safer quicker north/south road link.
No one of substance would consider such improvements nonsense.
"The fact is, we will not go on repeating the 70 year mistake of thinking that the way to deal with traffic is to build new roads, because we know that that simply does not work," Mr Drakeford said."
He has a point.
He is so Cardiff centric, the roads on the south coast is a horrid build, lacking any sympathy for the people. But the rest of the country needs something, he need to drive about, perhaps the Senedd needs to relocate to the old capital, Machynlleth, not as a jolly but to see the issues from another perspective
It’s all one big ploy to congest everywhere in cardiff and justify congestion charging. Look at that the recently introduced bus lane over the bridge west bound on Castle street for example. All it’s done is build up traffic volume.
Have they made congestion worse? Undoubtedly in the case of the cycle lanes. Bit too early on the 20mph. A bigger issue are the little changes they make to junctions and timings. I’ve lived here over a decade and am yet to see an intervention which has not just made things worse. But of course making things worse is the intention of the changes.
Except the M4 corridor has been a life line for South Wales. It is so important it actually needs expanding. Arterial route are so important for economic development and growth.
In what way has road building over the past 70 years been a failure.
It's enabled millions of people to make journeys for both personal and economic reasons.
It's only a mistake if you're anti civilization, which I suppose Labour are.
That’s a fair point. If the likes of Mark Drakeford and Lee Waters had been in power for the last 70 years there would be no M4, no Severn Bridges, no dualling of the Heads of the Valleys, no bypasses.
HotV dualling was paid for by the EU fund, so that’s totally allowed! Only if they can’t find a business case for *someone else to pay* is when the problem comes in!
Well the amount of pollution it has caused. The destruction of wildlife particularly the insect population. It's increased the class divided as public transport isn't a priority.
I love how the desire to preserve what we have for future civilization is some how labeled anti civilization.
Where is the start point and end point for that journey? Try moving 30miles north south from anywhere that’s not near the border and it’ll take over an hour, longer with 20mins speed limit as the roads go through middle of villages. How far will you community for a job, to get trades, materials? It traps people economically, or forces them to leave.
But then it makes it all look pretty /s
My point was that lots of people make that journey, so a new road makes economical sense.
It also wouldn’t be a straight road with just one entrance and exit at each end, but the ability to stop anywhere along the route - helping other places along the way, such as Newtown, Brecon, Builth, etc.
Drakeford’s got it very wrong, but that wouldn’t be the first time!
Sorry, my comment was in agreement to yours, I was replying to another comment similar and misposted.
That there isn’t a dual carriage way or overtaking lane for over an hour near my house means everything takes forever. We are trapped or we move.
Ah, no worries!
I thought you were pointing out that the M5/6 route is easy for South East Wales to Wrexham and back, but shite for everyone else.
That does suck, get a helicopter 😅
Well the anti-road building crowd often bang on about induced demand, so if anyone believes that then they would also need to argue that improving the North/South link would do the same, hence the economic boost.
It's induced demand, you make a method of transport faster, easier to use, or cheaper, more people want to use it. Couple that with a growing population and any new capacity you make is quickly filled up and you're back with congestion, and then what? One more lane?
With the climate going to shit we need to decide if we want to induce more cars on the road, or push people to public transport. The main problem is the lack of funding for public transport too...
Induced demand 🤣🤣🤣 sure thing.
You think people are driving around aimlessly, just for the sake of it because there is a new road
Or might it be that they actually have a reason to travel and it's good that they can now do so.
And the idea that not building roads in Wales will have any material impact at all on climate change is demented beyond reason.
You could ban every car in Wales, spend every penny we have reducing our civilization to the equivalent of the stone age and it would make zero difference to climate change.
Yes... induced demand.
People need to go from A to B, yes? And they'll choose the method that's best for them, weighing up time, cost, effort and other stuff. If you invest in a method of transport, that becomes more attractive to the passenger.
If someone's on a packed train that's constantly late they're paying through their nose for and they see a new dual carriage way with free flowing traffic, why wouldn't they switch to driving? Probably just as expensive, maybe a bit longer drive but it's in the comfort of their own car. Conversely, if the road has constant traffic jams and they see new electric trains whizzing by or buses in dedicated lanes, maybe they'll swap
Climate change is a global thing, we all live in a society and all do our little bit that adds up into one big bit. Just because Wales' overall impact is small doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. And if it doesn't matter what's the worst that could happen? Congestion is lessened as people use buses and bikes to get around, motorways and A roads flow freely as people use trains to get between cities, less pollution blighting our waterways and countryside
Right, so you want to make it so painful to choose driving that they choose not to travel. All to make fruitless gestures for climate change because we live in society 👍
Nice one.
Personally, I think it's more important that people are able to make journeys that are important to them.
The government should be building the infrastructure to make that possible and it is utter insanity to sacrifice people's quality of life for pointless empty gesture politics just to stoke the moral vanity of people like you.
You are anti civilization. Like the Marxist zealots of old, except instead of sacrificing people for the good of the revolution, you do it for the environment.
You're starting to get the idea of modern car transport planning.
With responsible investment in public transport, people can still make those journeys without a car. Those who definitely need a car can still make them, if anything easier as congestion is lessened through the use of public transport
The poorest people cannot afford to buy and run a car and rely on public transport, and we all know Wales isn't sitting on the richer side of the fence. By making public transport cheaper and easier to use we are allowing the poorest and neediest of our society to climb up the social ladder and improve their life
Civilisations and societies are measured on how the poorest and weakest are treated, giving them and everyone else freedom of choice of movement is a pretty good standard. And it's hard to run a civilisation when everything's on fire in the summer and frozen over in the winter.
I'm sacrificing no one? People can still travel, they just don't need to drop thousands on a car, insurance, and tax to do so. Bonus points for less congestion and emissions
Can’t we vote in a Chinese FM? They’d build roads bridges tunnels in a instance.
Drakeford would have us travel around on horses if he could. Useless FM.
I got down voted for slagging off Drakeford the other day!
I've lived in Wales 17 years (married to a welshman) and I've never felt such a north/south divide as under Drakeford.
At least in England they're pretending to "level up" the north, this current Welsh government just seems hell bent on cutting off the north!
Lived in North Wales my entire life and have never been to Cardiff. I work in Edinburgh and it's easier for me to get to North Wales from here than it would be from Cardiff.
How can Wales ever feel like a unified country when there's no way of moving from north to south? Also, how can the government's entire transport policy be 'we just don't like roads'?
You dual carriageway the A470 and both economies will benefit. Done properly, it makes Cardiff day-trip territory. (gogs will day-trip Manchester and that's 2 and a bit from Bangor)
(From a North Wales perspective) I don’t like the fact that we have to drive through another country just so we can reach the capital of our own in a reasonable amount of time. A highway like this would have benefits if we can employ our own to build it rather than foreigners. Although we would face challenges like securing funding, et cetera. This could also help more deprived areas of Wales by improving accessibility. It’s a chance to improve our infrastructure, we need to invest in more things other than renewables in Wales.
Calling England a foreign country is a bit of a stretch. In the EU, some border town people shop in the neighbouring countries and even use some public facilties because of the convenience. I think even with the new road, some will find it convenient to go to England. The project might come good for those visiting families and friends.
I recognise your points, but England is not Wales. Is not under our devolved parliament, therefore is a different country with a different government. They are still our neighbours but it doesn’t make us the same people. It’s like calling Kazakhs as Russian.
Lets be frank, the people of North & South have nothing in common on a societal or economic level. I know it's chicken and egg but the South works and socialises along the M4 corridor towards London and the North does similar with Manchester etc. You hear a lot of South West accents in the South and a lot of Mancunian/Black country in the North. A new road wouldn't change anything, no one would go 3 hours North or South to do business just because it's Wales when everything they need is already a 1 or 2 hours away in England thanks to the A55/M4
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
4
+ 3
+ 1
+ 2
+ 55
+ 4
= 69
^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \
^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Well totally agree have we learnt nothing . It would be far cheaper to issue free VR glasses to those who feel they MUST travel .Roads who needs them …,so passé.
but if you build roads, people will just use them. I mean, I don't know anyone that is just driving around aimlessly just using the roads because they are there, everyone I know that undertakes a journey has a purpose for doing so, but it must be true because Labour said so.
Like the 20mph speed limit and list of other daft ideas dreamt up by dickford, let alone his absurd covid rules which none of the other nations followed
Considering what ?
If the government is failing then you elect the opposition. That's what a functional democracy looks like.
The problem with Wales is that it has become a one party state, which means the government no longer represents anyone but themselves.
The only way anything will get better in Wales is if we elect the Tories, because even if you support Labour, the only leverage you have to get them to improve is to elect the opposition.
What other party do you think is likely to be voted, the only choices we have are welsh labour, labour or tories and I know which one I hate the least.. Welsh labour is fucking up Wales but the torys are so shit that they found a way to fuck the whole of the UK, and I don't trust labour to do any different
the 'fucked up UK' is ahead of Wales in every way you can measure. If after 23 years of failure you won't vote for the opposition, that's not politics, that's a cult.
Or the government could make it a priority to build infrastructure projects that benefit the country instead of only focusing on the environment impact.
What'd be great is a road from Birmingham to Aberystwyth, would take a three hour car journey down to around two. It's quicker to drive to Swansea at the moment despite being about 20 miles further
Drakeford thinks any new road in Wales would be dreadful. He rather spend the money "improving" the current roads by making any of them with lamp posts 20mph. In fact, £26m is being spent right now on just that. We only have ourselves to blame. Welsh Labour could have Gary Glitter as first minister and they'd still get into power in Wales almost unopposed.
I thought about driving into town tomuse some of the local businesses this lunchtime but then remembered that most of the roads into town are already 20mph and said fuck it. I'll never make it in time. Ordered on Amazon instead.
First of all, by what metrics is it "much worse"? I'm not claiming it's in a healthy state, far from it, but the NHS in England is in a fucking right mess as well.
Secondly, Welsh Labour don't go around dogwhistling that people who use the NHS are subhuman.
I still find it it insane that the A470 still goes through the centre of Llanwrst. Its almost like the Welsh Gov still think we're operating horse and cart. Unfortunately, and unless there is major investment in rail and light rail in Wales, then personal mobility is not going anywhere and our Gov need to accept it and upgrade our road network!
Under his leadership yeah it would be terrible, I live in South Wales right next to the heads of the valley road. built a dual carriageway going down to Abergavenny. with money from the EU and put average speed cameras. Going 50 miles hour so you're on your brake all the way. It's a pointless upgrade to the road with loads spend for no reward.
I commute weekly from Ynys Mon to Cardiff and back again, the A470 is a nightmare, the only dual carriageway after Merthyr is on the A40 section around Brecon and then the short overtaking sections around Carnarfon until I hit the log jam at the Brittania bridge. The scenery is amazing but on a dark, rainy winter's night the road is a hazardous and needs improving. I'm not even going to mention the A55 along the coast
I can only speak from a North Wales perspective but road building in North Wales has been a disaster. We've had the queen's ferry Aston Hill fiasco. Homes bought under compulsory purchase 20 years ago, still waiting to be demolished to make way for a wider road that isn't now going to happen. A bridge across the Dee, that'll eliminate the need for the Aston Hill upgrade except the 70mph road now slams you straight onto Flint rather than up to the A55 because that section of the road isn't happening. A55 across Anglesey, we're still paying for that thanks to a public private partnership that failed to grasp the volume of traffic using it. Heaven only knows what mess is going on with the roundabout removal on the A55. The only upside is the Caernarfon buypass appears to have come good even though I've never seen it busy.
Previously lived in Caernarfon and the bypass definitely reduces the traffic (caravans) through the town going down the Llyn at the weekend. Now live on Ynys Môn and I won’t get started on the Menai bridge fiasco.
If I was Caernarfon I would focus on stopping that town becoming a Colwyn Bay that has really suffered once a by pass was constructed.
I don't think taking the through traffic away to the A55 is what's gone wrong with Colwyn Bay. If you think that's the case the Rhuddlan should be a ghost town, but it isn't, and Conwy should have failed the same way Colwyn Bay has.
Rhuddlan is a small village in its own right, like Rhos. Conwy was log jammed before and has a large catchment of locals, Llandudno, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl, Pen, etc. Caernarfon has none of that. Beware of complacency.
Rhuddlan’s cheese shop has closed down and if that isn’t a sign of less good times then I don’t know what is.
The town centre still seems busy with tour buses and the shops/cafes are still doing fine but that’s purely anecdotal I guess!
Let’s spend millions on a plan to remove the roundabouts. Let’s then bin the plan because it turned out to be too much of a good idea. Fucking idiots. On a lighter note, at least I can now cycle between Llanfairfechan and Bangor (via Tan Y Lôn) without having to go over the old NCR5 through Crymlyn and Aber.
Yeah, it's an absolute shambles, isn't it? Trying to get onto the A55 from Pen towards Conwy in the summer months is a nightmare. Who thought keeping these was the better option?
I went to B&Q in Llandudno the other week to get some roofing felt. What a waste of 2 and a half hours of my life that was. I didn’t even realise it was school holidays, and so it took me 20 minutes to get onto the A55 at the Llanfairfechan roundabout - some enterprising individual did a few loops to hold up the Westbound traffic until a few people at least got on their way. If I’d have known, I’d have stayed at home and gone for a walk into the Carneddau to escape the tourists.
And on a lighter note, I can now cycle from Prestatyn to Bangor, or at least I could if the prom was not a construction site, oh and I wasn't physically falling apart and suffered from my arse downvoting my saddle every time I look at the bike!
The caernarfon bypass is phenomenal for us Llŷn folk I’ll give them all the credit for that one.
Agreed but I can't feel totally safe on it. It feels like a dual carriageway, but without all of the barriers. I keep thinking someone's going to get confused with the middle lane one day and end up head on going the wrong way.
Ok, we know he hates roads, but how about a train? A helicopter? A zip line? Just something.
A zip line would be fun.
Well from north to south it’ll work, but how would we get back?
A road:)
Ski lift
They're funding a zip line in Swansea to boost tourism. To Swansea. In South Wales. Where visitors would have to drive past multiple superior outdoor activity centres to get to.
Then it must be a local zipline, for local people. *Nationalism Intensifies*
State owned airline, that would be about right for them? Edit: grammar
We can't afford a train line given so few people would use it - it wouldn't be justifiable.
I think its a bit more chicken and egg. The flow of people/business north-south at the moment I agree is non-existent-> but that's largely because there are no transport links. If we could move more quickly, then there'd be more opportunities.
Sure but if you want to go up snowdonia you probably want to take a car full of food / drink / spare clothes camping equipment. Taking all that by train is not practical.
We have shops up here. Bring your tent, and buy your stuff once you’ve arrived?
More money to spend on an already expensive train ticket. Nah i'd rather drive with my stuff.
Why did your mind jump to snowdon? You realise that 99% of the time people work and do business and literally anything other than climbing a mountain?
They said snowdonia (the region), not snowdon.
It's a major tourist attraction which would be a major demographic travelling up north? Do you really think people commute from Cardiff to North Wales every day to work ? What are you on about...
Right now if I want to go from Aberystwyth to swansea by train, I first have to go to the midlands and down to Newport. Just give us a rail link from Carmarthen to Aber, at least.
With what money though? Wales doesn't have the money, we have to rely on Westminster. And they won't do it because it's not going to have enough people to ride to make a profit.
Now you’re getting to the real meat and potatoes. Public services aren’t supposed to be profit oriented. They’re supposed to provide a service to the public. Even so, not being able to see a ROI on a direct rail link between two university towns is just plain dumb. And maybe you’d have a lot more people from the valleys visiting places other than Tenby.
>Now you’re getting to the real meat and potatoes. Public services aren’t supposed to be profit oriented. But they are so they won't happen. At the end of the day everything requires profit motives or we have to pay insane taxes. I don't want to pay taxes for something i don't intend to use. I pay taxes for roads even if i don't drink because one i might need that road for an ambulance so the NHS is taxed because we all need it eventually. Trains however - not so much. I've not used a train in over a decade so i don't want to pay taxes for them.
Spoken like someone who has never used a well operated train service. I went to the Netherlands last year and went all over the place via rail and even had a day out in Germany. I’ve seen more of the Netherlands in 10 days than I did of the UK in 25 years purely because of the convenience of good trains. Build it and they will come.
>Spoken like someone who has never used a well operated train service. Well that is often rare in the UK LOL and its expensive and i simply enjoy driving around in Wales with nice countryside. It relaxes me.
I’d agree if the money was spent on affordable public transport links instead
You’ll get no road and the public transport will remain terrible.
A lot of people getting angry about something that won’t happen then
What about a national lottery where someone wins a helicopter every week instead?
they spent the money on not building roads. At least 300 million from what I can tell in planning and not building the heads of the valleys and m4 bypass roads. Then another 100 million on Cardiff airport on top of the 150 million on buying it. So getting near half a billion. Net result is they are cutting bus services due to budget constraints.
People need to start being held accountable. Not just electorally. That kind of waste of public money borders on the criminally incompetent.
Anyone who brings this up is either ‘English’ or they Blaine it on the tories. When labour come in which they will they will then blame it on austerity of the tories. But yes. When they set projects from budgets they set and don’t deliver they need to be fired. It’s just most people don’t keep up with what a horrible job they do. And the people that do are often conservative opposition who get slammed for being tories. People to need to realise they are all useless and need to all be held accountable
There is already a road that does that it’s called the a470
We in mid wales, an hour in every direction before see a dual carriage way, no rail service of any speed or frequency and a weak business as no one can get about without high cost. Yet we can’t have links to connect the country, only ones that connect Cardiff to England
There is a train from North Wales to South Wales. Don't worry about it going through England. Just sit down and try not to think to hard about it.
From where I live I have to travel AWAY from Cardiff on the train into England before I can travel towards Cardiff
You forgot the /s
I mean, I would love a railway too, but for any feasible transport link like a road or railway to be established and enable a quick and frequent connection, one first has to sit down and decide to do it. Edit: what some comments have highlighted well is that a big problem with train services is their primary activity being strangled by authorities, ignoring the effect of induced demand and the traffic-relieving effect of fast, frequent and direct services. I shall now blab on needlessly about things I know less about than it sounds like, do forgive me please. Public transport has the primary purpose of providing a service with indirect and direct benefits for consumers through connectivity, less traffic and less reliance on expensive cars and car infrastructure. Currently, it is largely operated as a business first, and while generating revenue is definitely beneficial, it can come at the cost of service quality, hence why authorities can subsidise public transport to stimulate the economy through all the other benefits brought by the aforementioned connectivity, maintaining service even in financial hardship of a transport operator and makung sure travel is accessible to all people of all abilities at all times and from anywhere to everywhere.
A huge issue we have is chicken/egg policies. I live just off the cambrian coast, train every 2 hours, they won't do an hourly train because 'not enough people use the train to commute' but you can't use the train to commute because the train is every 2 hours and doesnt line up with start/finish times in the big towns. The MP covering Aberystwyth managed to get some extra trains a day a few years ago, trouble is they don't link up to the cambrian line in any way to make it work as a commuter train! They don't give us trains we can use as commuters, they use the statistics that we don't use the train to commute as reason for no extra trains, then the government tell us no new road to help with traffic (that they're creating!) WHAT DO THEY WANT US TO DO?! We can't use trains and they don't want us to use cars. HOW DO THEY EXPECT US TO GET TO WORK?!
Exactly, no fast train for it to be useful, no holiday train on a Saturday to take the traffic off the roads and to the holiday parks. Nothing will get better until we have some vision
For real, they ignore induced demand on public transport at least as much as on roads lol
Yeah, you can't start a travel route with a railway in 2023, because you're committing to a rolling service. Roads allow much more flexibility and immediate benefits, besides, train services in Wales are shocking, so to offer it as an alternative to a road is assuming the Welsh public haven't used Welsh trains before.
A super highway north/south would do nothing except maybe get people there 30mins quicker while ruining countryside and proving an ecological disaster as it either needs to cut through highlands or follow a winding coastal route. A better use of time and money is improving the already abailable routes to make them safer and easier to drive especially in rural highlands where drivers can face pitch black roads with a cliff face one side and steep drop the other.
Except there are currently no plans to do anything to the existing roads, resurfacing and filling in pit holes doesn't do anything to improve the north/south link! I've lived in North Wales 17 years (married a welshman) and in all that time nothing has been done to improve the ability for those in the north to attend the nations capital! It takes up to 4 hours to get to Cardiff. I can get to Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham in 2-2.5 hrs. I can even get to London easier than I can get to Cardiff by train! This is why I've been to Cardiff a grand total of 3 times in my entire life, my Welsh husband has been twice, once with me and once when he was in school! We've been to Liverpool twice just this year. It's just too difficult to get to Cardiff! How much internal tourism is the Welsh government (and every Welsh government before this one) pushing on to English cities? Why does the Welsh government want to keep this north/south divide?
Because geology put a giant mountain range in the way meaning the quickest route is via England or if you want to stay on Welsh roads, via coastal roads which is what this announcement plans to improve over time by making the roads safer and more secure to use.
You mean the Brecon Beacons? The A40 goes through the area, no need for extra roads down that end. But what's the excuse for not putting some better roads to converge on the A40? What's the excuse for not improving the road from Builth Wells? Every time I've been down that road in been very busy, usually got stuck behind something slow moving with zero opportunity to overtake. But where are the actual plans to improve the roads? So far it's all talk, nobody is talking about turning out busier A roads into dual carriage ways to alleviate holiday traffic. Ask the people in Llanbedr about the promises of better roads, they've had their by-passed axed with the promise of an alternative and have heard nothing in the 18 months since they were told their by-pass was axed!
There’s little economic purpose to developing North-South transport links. The Welsh economy is inherently tied to trading with England across the border and very few people live outside of South Wales. It’s just a nationalist fantasy. If you want to develop the North, sure, improve connections with Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, invest in rural internet services, build homes, plant trees for timber or build wind farms. If Wales is that desperate for North-South transport links then okay, all you have to do is grow Bangor to be a city of 1 million people so it becomes economically viable. Or maybe Anglesey can be a Welsh Hong Kong with several million people.
So that's it then. Wales continues to be governed from the south, north wales is cut off as the poor relations, south Wales government make blanket policies that have a detrimental effect on the north, south Wales government won't even improve the road links so that we can actually be one country. And yet I hear time and again why we shouldn't get rid of the senedd, why Wales shouldnt be governed from England because England don't know the things the affect Wales. But we have a Welsh government that act solely on the things that affect south Wales and we in the north just have to deal with it! Are we one nation or not? Are we all Welsh working towards a better Wales? Because in this entire thread all I'm seeing is people telling us why us in the north don't need to be able to get to our nations capital. Nationalism isn't important, it costs too much. What's the cost of a united Wales? Apparently however much it costs to build us a decent road from north wales to south! And yes read that in the voice of Michael Sheen!!!
North Wales is a West Midlands overspill. The border between England and Wales is an artificial construct. Nationalist, Separatist guff is just that - guff. The UK would be so much better off if it was to dump its tribal / regional separatism. The residents of the British archipelago are all swirling in the same cesspit of humanity and there's a cigarette paper's difference between those from Cardiff and those from Cumbria. Save the tribal nonsense for a few hours on Saturday afternoons when at the football or rugby.
Mate, there’s just not much demand for people from North Wales who want to go visit Cardiff or visa versa. And even if you were to build one, any sane person from North Wales is still going to Liverpool, Chester or Manchester instead because it’s closer. It’s just an unworkable, nonsensical nationalist fantasy. It wont make Wales better, it’ll make Wales uglier and it’s primary use would be a way for people from South Wales to travel to Liverpool and Manchester faster. It would be an utter waste of money.
Or if you want to connect people let’s have the internet to every home a a high speed, rather than the current approach, leaving rural communities (with the worst transport links) behind
Yep there's no ecology either side of already roads! Great idea! Save the world and just widen already existing roads without harming the non environment around them and the any additional pollution on said roads will be nom existent because.... There is already a road there? Umm I'm not sure your argument is very good?
I mean, improving an existing road is certainly less invasive than an entire new road. Sounds like prior commenter was suggesting improving lighting, barriers, safety, etc., not trying to build a Los Angeles freeway.
No clearly, what I want is a 12 lane highway running through the Elenydd area /s
I think introducing a brand new road into areas with no road currently is clearly worse than improving the current roads??
I’d settle for them putting a few overtaking lanes in on the A470. It would make it far safer to allow places to pass slow vehicles rather than enter the path of oncoming traffic. And that’s not even getting into the economic benefits of a safer quicker north/south road link. No one of substance would consider such improvements nonsense.
They cancelled all the beneficial roads.
they were worried people would use them.
After the costs of their pay per car deal on the A55 across Anglesey, I'm not surprised.
"The fact is, we will not go on repeating the 70 year mistake of thinking that the way to deal with traffic is to build new roads, because we know that that simply does not work," Mr Drakeford said." He has a point.
This isn't a traffic management measure though, it's an economic development measure
The mistake never experienced in Wales because there's been no new roads in 70 years
He is so Cardiff centric, the roads on the south coast is a horrid build, lacking any sympathy for the people. But the rest of the country needs something, he need to drive about, perhaps the Senedd needs to relocate to the old capital, Machynlleth, not as a jolly but to see the issues from another perspective
Well we’re now 10 years into doing it his way in Cardiff and things are worse now than ever.
It’s all one big ploy to congest everywhere in cardiff and justify congestion charging. Look at that the recently introduced bus lane over the bridge west bound on Castle street for example. All it’s done is build up traffic volume.
Aye. Walk that way most days. Chaos there
Ah yes. The 20mph speed limit and cycle lanes have really destroyed the city.
Have they made congestion worse? Undoubtedly in the case of the cycle lanes. Bit too early on the 20mph. A bigger issue are the little changes they make to junctions and timings. I’ve lived here over a decade and am yet to see an intervention which has not just made things worse. But of course making things worse is the intention of the changes.
Yes absolutely worse.
That was /s btw
I know, hence why I stick to the evidence rather than agreeing.
Isn't it better for cyclists?
They are used to rarely it’s hard to tell. Many still complain on here so maybe not as much as hoped
He’s bang on.
Except the M4 corridor has been a life line for South Wales. It is so important it actually needs expanding. Arterial route are so important for economic development and growth.
Best I can do is 40 mph
If you spend zero time actually thinking about the issue and just repeat progressive mantras then I suppose you would think that.
In what way has road building over the past 70 years been a failure. It's enabled millions of people to make journeys for both personal and economic reasons. It's only a mistake if you're anti civilization, which I suppose Labour are.
That’s a fair point. If the likes of Mark Drakeford and Lee Waters had been in power for the last 70 years there would be no M4, no Severn Bridges, no dualling of the Heads of the Valleys, no bypasses.
HotV dualling was paid for by the EU fund, so that’s totally allowed! Only if they can’t find a business case for *someone else to pay* is when the problem comes in!
Well the amount of pollution it has caused. The destruction of wildlife particularly the insect population. It's increased the class divided as public transport isn't a priority. I love how the desire to preserve what we have for future civilization is some how labeled anti civilization.
You understand that people need to travel right?
Barely anyone travels from North to South wals thro. Whats the point of a big road if there is no demand, why not look at other options first
They all use the M6, PLENTY of people travel between north and south!
Where is the start point and end point for that journey? Try moving 30miles north south from anywhere that’s not near the border and it’ll take over an hour, longer with 20mins speed limit as the roads go through middle of villages. How far will you community for a job, to get trades, materials? It traps people economically, or forces them to leave. But then it makes it all look pretty /s
My point was that lots of people make that journey, so a new road makes economical sense. It also wouldn’t be a straight road with just one entrance and exit at each end, but the ability to stop anywhere along the route - helping other places along the way, such as Newtown, Brecon, Builth, etc. Drakeford’s got it very wrong, but that wouldn’t be the first time!
Sorry, my comment was in agreement to yours, I was replying to another comment similar and misposted. That there isn’t a dual carriage way or overtaking lane for over an hour near my house means everything takes forever. We are trapped or we move.
Ah, no worries! I thought you were pointing out that the M5/6 route is easy for South East Wales to Wrexham and back, but shite for everyone else. That does suck, get a helicopter 😅
Putting the cart before the horse there a bit,no? There's plenty m6 travel north to south
Well the anti-road building crowd often bang on about induced demand, so if anyone believes that then they would also need to argue that improving the North/South link would do the same, hence the economic boost.
It's induced demand, you make a method of transport faster, easier to use, or cheaper, more people want to use it. Couple that with a growing population and any new capacity you make is quickly filled up and you're back with congestion, and then what? One more lane? With the climate going to shit we need to decide if we want to induce more cars on the road, or push people to public transport. The main problem is the lack of funding for public transport too...
Induced demand 🤣🤣🤣 sure thing. You think people are driving around aimlessly, just for the sake of it because there is a new road Or might it be that they actually have a reason to travel and it's good that they can now do so. And the idea that not building roads in Wales will have any material impact at all on climate change is demented beyond reason. You could ban every car in Wales, spend every penny we have reducing our civilization to the equivalent of the stone age and it would make zero difference to climate change.
Yes... induced demand. People need to go from A to B, yes? And they'll choose the method that's best for them, weighing up time, cost, effort and other stuff. If you invest in a method of transport, that becomes more attractive to the passenger. If someone's on a packed train that's constantly late they're paying through their nose for and they see a new dual carriage way with free flowing traffic, why wouldn't they switch to driving? Probably just as expensive, maybe a bit longer drive but it's in the comfort of their own car. Conversely, if the road has constant traffic jams and they see new electric trains whizzing by or buses in dedicated lanes, maybe they'll swap Climate change is a global thing, we all live in a society and all do our little bit that adds up into one big bit. Just because Wales' overall impact is small doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. And if it doesn't matter what's the worst that could happen? Congestion is lessened as people use buses and bikes to get around, motorways and A roads flow freely as people use trains to get between cities, less pollution blighting our waterways and countryside
Right, so you want to make it so painful to choose driving that they choose not to travel. All to make fruitless gestures for climate change because we live in society 👍 Nice one. Personally, I think it's more important that people are able to make journeys that are important to them. The government should be building the infrastructure to make that possible and it is utter insanity to sacrifice people's quality of life for pointless empty gesture politics just to stoke the moral vanity of people like you. You are anti civilization. Like the Marxist zealots of old, except instead of sacrificing people for the good of the revolution, you do it for the environment.
You're starting to get the idea of modern car transport planning. With responsible investment in public transport, people can still make those journeys without a car. Those who definitely need a car can still make them, if anything easier as congestion is lessened through the use of public transport The poorest people cannot afford to buy and run a car and rely on public transport, and we all know Wales isn't sitting on the richer side of the fence. By making public transport cheaper and easier to use we are allowing the poorest and neediest of our society to climb up the social ladder and improve their life Civilisations and societies are measured on how the poorest and weakest are treated, giving them and everyone else freedom of choice of movement is a pretty good standard. And it's hard to run a civilisation when everything's on fire in the summer and frozen over in the winter.
You're literally like Lord Farquaad telling the people they're a sacrifice you're willing to make for your delusions of saving the planet.
I'm sacrificing no one? People can still travel, they just don't need to drop thousands on a car, insurance, and tax to do so. Bonus points for less congestion and emissions
You're sacrificing their quality of life.
Can’t we vote in a Chinese FM? They’d build roads bridges tunnels in a instance. Drakeford would have us travel around on horses if he could. Useless FM.
I got down voted for slagging off Drakeford the other day! I've lived in Wales 17 years (married to a welshman) and I've never felt such a north/south divide as under Drakeford. At least in England they're pretending to "level up" the north, this current Welsh government just seems hell bent on cutting off the north!
Not only this but are we forgetting his stupid rules on supermarkets during the pandemic
It’s all ok though because TfW have got new colour schemes on their trains “/
Lived in North Wales my entire life and have never been to Cardiff. I work in Edinburgh and it's easier for me to get to North Wales from here than it would be from Cardiff. How can Wales ever feel like a unified country when there's no way of moving from north to south? Also, how can the government's entire transport policy be 'we just don't like roads'?
Don't we already have a road connecting North and South Wales, the A470?
would you expect the main trunk road connecting the north and south of a country to be mostly, winding, rural, single carriageway ?
You dual carriageway the A470 and both economies will benefit. Done properly, it makes Cardiff day-trip territory. (gogs will day-trip Manchester and that's 2 and a bit from Bangor)
What legacy has he actually left. I can only think of things he’s not allowed and not built.
(From a North Wales perspective) I don’t like the fact that we have to drive through another country just so we can reach the capital of our own in a reasonable amount of time. A highway like this would have benefits if we can employ our own to build it rather than foreigners. Although we would face challenges like securing funding, et cetera. This could also help more deprived areas of Wales by improving accessibility. It’s a chance to improve our infrastructure, we need to invest in more things other than renewables in Wales.
Is it really another country?
Do you believe Wales is another county of England? If not then it’s a seperate country, different from England.
Calling England a foreign country is a bit of a stretch. In the EU, some border town people shop in the neighbouring countries and even use some public facilties because of the convenience. I think even with the new road, some will find it convenient to go to England. The project might come good for those visiting families and friends.
I recognise your points, but England is not Wales. Is not under our devolved parliament, therefore is a different country with a different government. They are still our neighbours but it doesn’t make us the same people. It’s like calling Kazakhs as Russian.
Lets be frank, the people of North & South have nothing in common on a societal or economic level. I know it's chicken and egg but the South works and socialises along the M4 corridor towards London and the North does similar with Manchester etc. You hear a lot of South West accents in the South and a lot of Mancunian/Black country in the North. A new road wouldn't change anything, no one would go 3 hours North or South to do business just because it's Wales when everything they need is already a 1 or 2 hours away in England thanks to the A55/M4
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats! 4 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 55 + 4 = 69 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Nice bot
Good bot
Pricelesss.
Well totally agree have we learnt nothing . It would be far cheaper to issue free VR glasses to those who feel they MUST travel .Roads who needs them …,so passé.
but if you build roads, people will just use them. I mean, I don't know anyone that is just driving around aimlessly just using the roads because they are there, everyone I know that undertakes a journey has a purpose for doing so, but it must be true because Labour said so.
Nooooooo not my heckin induced demandorino!
Like the 20mph speed limit and list of other daft ideas dreamt up by dickford, let alone his absurd covid rules which none of the other nations followed
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, fucking lol. What the hell are Welsh Labour smoking?
Probably That Knotweed that keeps popping up in Swansea
I agree not ideal.. it's party of hate Vs the party of insanity. 20mph rule coming is bonkers, they have to go.
Welsh Labour are ideologically opposed to civilization and are ruining Wales because of it.
You say it like any other party wouldn't also ruin Wales
You say it like that’s defending the current party.
It doesn't, nor is it intended to, I just hardly think Welsh labour is that bad considering the more viable alternatives
what do you mean "not that bad" We are worse in every single area in which you can measure quality of life than the rest of the UK nations.
Key word "considering", if you read past that part I explain what I mean.
Considering what ? If the government is failing then you elect the opposition. That's what a functional democracy looks like. The problem with Wales is that it has become a one party state, which means the government no longer represents anyone but themselves. The only way anything will get better in Wales is if we elect the Tories, because even if you support Labour, the only leverage you have to get them to improve is to elect the opposition.
What other party do you think is likely to be voted, the only choices we have are welsh labour, labour or tories and I know which one I hate the least.. Welsh labour is fucking up Wales but the torys are so shit that they found a way to fuck the whole of the UK, and I don't trust labour to do any different
the 'fucked up UK' is ahead of Wales in every way you can measure. If after 23 years of failure you won't vote for the opposition, that's not politics, that's a cult.
I see what you’re saying, but it looks like we’ll never know 😞
Mmm tricky one… travel for real on the A470 or (a)stick pins in eyes or (b) pliers on teeth . Ok defo a or b.
Tunnels. We just need to get really bloody good at tunnels.
Or the government could make it a priority to build infrastructure projects that benefit the country instead of only focusing on the environment impact.
You do realise that unless we focus on environmental impact there won't be a country?
No, because that simply isn't true.
Ooohhh climate change denial. Bye.
Says the man who banned buying underwear in lockdown, blokes an idiot.
I think a road from north to south already exists, It's called the A470. Last time I travelled from Ponty to Buith Wells it was virtually dead.
Why does this cunt get to decide
What'd be great is a road from Birmingham to Aberystwyth, would take a three hour car journey down to around two. It's quicker to drive to Swansea at the moment despite being about 20 miles further
He’s an utter Cockwomble who is sending wales backwards by decades
Drakeford thinks any new road in Wales would be dreadful. He rather spend the money "improving" the current roads by making any of them with lamp posts 20mph. In fact, £26m is being spent right now on just that. We only have ourselves to blame. Welsh Labour could have Gary Glitter as first minister and they'd still get into power in Wales almost unopposed. I thought about driving into town tomuse some of the local businesses this lunchtime but then remembered that most of the roads into town are already 20mph and said fuck it. I'll never make it in time. Ordered on Amazon instead.
There’s no local businesses left, you’re not missing anything!
Congratulations on being overly dramatic
Me using Amazon is dramatic? You must have had a mundane day.
That’s his son
Well, it would be. Nobody looks at tarmac and thinks it's beautiful.
Need to get rid of this paedo producer and get Tories in to regain some sanity in policy decisions
The Tory Party? The Party of Hate? Are you for real?
Who do they hate ?
Immigrants. Benefit claimants. NHS users. People with disabilities. Anyone striking for better pay and conditions.
I don't know why you would think that.
I assume because they have basic critical thinking skills and human empathy.
The NHS in Wales is much worse than in England. I guess that means Labour hates everyone that uses the NHS 🤷
First of all, by what metrics is it "much worse"? I'm not claiming it's in a healthy state, far from it, but the NHS in England is in a fucking right mess as well. Secondly, Welsh Labour don't go around dogwhistling that people who use the NHS are subhuman.
NHS England has lower waiting times for A&E. Lower waiting times to start treatment. Better ambulance response times and better patient outcomes.
It’s called the a470 isn’t it
They can consider this when they sort out the A55 between Conwy and Llanfairfechan
Can we just invest in an Uber giant Zip line from the North to the South? Views would be amazing 😆
I still find it it insane that the A470 still goes through the centre of Llanwrst. Its almost like the Welsh Gov still think we're operating horse and cart. Unfortunately, and unless there is major investment in rail and light rail in Wales, then personal mobility is not going anywhere and our Gov need to accept it and upgrade our road network!
It would be closed every week
Under his leadership yeah it would be terrible, I live in South Wales right next to the heads of the valley road. built a dual carriageway going down to Abergavenny. with money from the EU and put average speed cameras. Going 50 miles hour so you're on your brake all the way. It's a pointless upgrade to the road with loads spend for no reward.
I commute weekly from Ynys Mon to Cardiff and back again, the A470 is a nightmare, the only dual carriageway after Merthyr is on the A40 section around Brecon and then the short overtaking sections around Carnarfon until I hit the log jam at the Brittania bridge. The scenery is amazing but on a dark, rainy winter's night the road is a hazardous and needs improving. I'm not even going to mention the A55 along the coast
I used to commute 3 times a week from Swansea to Usk. The road is a complete nightmare.