National Transport Plan sets out road and rail priorities for Deeside

The Welsh Government has published its consultation document on the new National Transport Plan for Wales.

The National Transport Plan sets out priorities for roads and public transport projects in the next five to 30 years for the whole of Wales and will sit alongside Local Transport Plans being published by local authorities.

The Plan focuses on delivering five key priorities:

• economic Growth
• access to Employment
• tackling Poverty
• sustainable travel and safety
• access to services

The new National Transport Plan 2015 will set out in more detail how the Welsh Government proposes to deliver in those areas of transport for which it is responsible.

Transport Minister Edwina Hart said;

“Transport has a critical role to play in improving Wales’ economic competiveness and delivering our social ambitions. This Plan aims to provide a fresh approach to transport planning which will allow greater flexibility and ensure our investment best serves the needs of businesses, people and communities. We need a transport system that provides excellent national and international connections, enabling access to markets, employment, education and services.”

Specific area’s identified within the plan relevant to Deeside are:

• The need to improved rail connectivity to Manchester and Liverpool and to Manchester and Liverpool Airports’
• Address traffic, congestion and capacity issues on the  A494/A55/A458 Deeside Corridor
• The need to address traffic congestion on local roads serving the Enterprise Zone and
• Better connectivity by rail, bus and active travel modes to key employment sites.
• New railway station for Deeside Industrial Park/ Northern Gateway.
• North South rail journey time and capacity improvements.
• Deliver a youth concessionary bus fare scheme for 16 and 17 year olds.

Individual projects are prioritised to start in the short-term (next 5 years), medium term (up to 10 years) or longer term (next 20 to 30 years) – most of the Deeside projects fall into the short terms category.

The consultation is open until 11 march 2015 you can access all the document here: wales.gov.uk/consultations/transport