I fly out this Friday and get back on Friday the 5 August.

OK, what if I told you I have close ties with the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce and people within the Welsh Assembly Government, and neither of them are particularly thrilled with the plans. The Chamber of Commerce hates the idea in fact, becuase not only will they have to pay for the scheme through taxes, but their will be even more impetus on them to establish links with northern companies. And that to be quite frank would be catastrophic. Yes, it’s a shame that the north doesn’t share the souths prosperity, but unfortunately the areas economic stability and attractivness to investers & companies is very shaky- a serious lack of investment by the government itself has left parts of it very run down which in turn warns off prospective employers. The problems are far more wide ranging though- few main roads, low income farming, social problems like drug abuse and teen pregnancies all equal a big turn off for everybody concerned. The market just isn’t there in north Wales, the west especially. The east is better off becuase there are more main roads, larger towns, and they are closer to LPL, but it’s questionable whether this contributes, as prosperity still isn’t great. The assembly workers don’t like the idea either. Although the bigshots are all for it, ask any of the 10,000 other personal and they all think it’s going to be a drain on much needed money rather than a catalyst for regeneration. Even if there was market, Valley is miles away from any real towns. Air Wales couldn’t make SWS work and thats just a few miles outside Swansea, a city with 280,000 people. The whole of north Wales hasn’t got that many people! The government should be building better roads, improving the health service ( which in Wales is diabolicle) and investing in education (which although at present is quite good, a funding shortage has left many schools unable to afford photocopying) which is the key to attracting employers.

It’s stupid if you ask me. They should either have 2 operations- a loco & a full service- or just 1 whether it be loco or full service. Having 2 brands with exactly the same fares and service that even share websites is just more expensive to manage and more confusing to customers.