Great Western Coffee Shop

I'm putting this under "smoke and mirrors" because I find it very hard to find out just where my "tax pound" is spent.   When I give a hundred pounds to a store, HM Government gets 17.50 on top ... what does it do with it?   I've been nosing around some web sites and came up with some answers, including some transport ones, split down by region.   

Have a look ...

http://www.wellho.net/mouth/2640_How-is-your-tax-pound-spent-.html

... have a look further at my sources ... and see whether you can come to any logical explanation for the transport expenditure per capita, by region chart.

When you look at Wales, think how much of that is wasted on headline grabbing services rather than what is needed  ::) There is a lot of money wasted in Cardiff-North service for example. Makes you think how this money could be spent better elsewhere within the UK, not just Wales

Hey, hey, you, you, get off of our trains.

The north-south train is not such a nonsense as you think.

Cardiff to Bangor by road is 170 miles and about 4 hours each way without clocking the cameras. I reckon about ^50 in fuel.

18 seat Jetstream from Cardiff Wales Airport to RAF Valley - 70 minutes each way and about ^85 return.   Plus the public transport to and from there.

Cardiff to Bangor by bus is an astonishing 10 hours each way via Aberystwyth or 9 hours via Birmingham.  Fares unknown.

The train is 4.5 hours or so each way and a return is ^71.80.

I'm well entitled to since I've lived in South West Wales for years  :P I have noticed an unfair proportion spent which has led to areas such as the Heart of Wales line, Fishguard etc. to have an extremely poor service whilst transport funding isnot enough to provide an adequate bus service in many areas. But I also recognise this unfair allocation of resources happens elsewhere the famed Melksham example proving the point further. Just because money is being spent in an area does not mean it is being evenly spread in that area. I don't mean busy areas do not require larger funding, but many areas are severely neglected at the expense of small number of places. WAG express money could afford to pay for an adequate service to Fishguard whilst money has also been wasted on the North-South Wales flights. That money should be spent on more deserving projects elsewhere within the UK

Good news for the service to Fishguard:

http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/8939011.Funding_for_extra_trains_to_Fishguard/ (http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/8939011.Funding_for_extra_trains_to_Fishguard/)

I realise that it is useful and it compares favourably to the road alternatives (I am driving to Aberdaron next month so I will find out how poor the roads are), but is it really the rail priority for wales?  Improving the valley lines to Cardiff would help many more people. 

The problem with the WAG epress is that it connects two areas that for political reasons (because Wales is a single nation) have been deemed in need of connection, rather than two areas that a large number of people actually travel between.  Surely there is greater demand for either better commuter services (which are unexciting but would really spread the wealth out of Cardiff into the poorer parts of the country) or cross boarder services (which are politically difficult because WAG can't be seen to fund English railways (dispite the fact that the WAG express travels through England).

It just seems weird that there is a high quality restaurant service if you want to get to holyhead from cardiff, but not if you want to get to London.

Looks like Whitland's train service just got even more useful, assuming these services are operating in addition to the current Milford and Pembroke Dock trains and not as a replacement.

Well, the per-capita figures are based on the resident population, I presume, so you would expect a somewhat higher figure for London to cope with the influx of commuters...

BUT...

If anyone would like to look at the capital expenditure on railway station schemes (e.g. Kings Cross) per passenger using that station, I think they will find that London does rather well compared with regional stations.

And bad news for passengers once they get to Fishguard ...