The bottlenecks stopping North Wales rail services reaching their potential
Welsh Government have announced major plans to transform rail services in North Wales - described as ambitious by some and "pie in the sky" by political opponents. These range from some "quick wins" over the next year - like increasing Transport for Wales capacity on the North Wales mainline and a new direct service between Llandudno and Liverpool.
But a genuine revolution of services will require additional time and even greater financial backing, particularly from UK Government, who have responsibility for the rail network. UK governments - of all political colours - have historically failed to invest sufficiently in Welsh rail infrastructure, in comparison to parts of England.
The Tories did promise electrification of the North Wales mainline ahead of the last UK election in 2024 but there was scepticism over the real level of commitment. Now it is Labour who are unveiling grand plans and the Tories who are saying it is an election stunt and for the most part "unlikely to happen".
There are a number of issues that prevent expansion without very significant investment, and this is not even including electrification.
One of the most significant is actually just over the border at Chester. It does not have the platform capacity of say Crewe despite being a hub for multiple lines. This causes major capacity issues that in turn impact North Wales services. There is land for expansion but this will require a large investment.
The Network North Wales report states one of its ambitions (up to 2035) is to "Work to unlock additional capacity and interchange for rail services travelling through Chester, particularly for services to North Wales Mainline connecting into the Northen Arc."
Welsh Transport Secretary Ken Skates said: "There is a big piece of work needed at Chester station to deal with capacity constraints there. There is no point in electrifying the main line if you can't get trains in and out of Wales. At the moment it is the constraint at Chester that is preventing it first and foremost so we have got to deal with that."
Another log-jam on the existing lines - but one more easily fixable - is at the Padeswood cement plant on the Wrexham - Bidston line. It is hoped this could be solved within three years, enabling a major increase in services.
Mr Skates said: "The first project that needs to be delivered concerns capacity constraints at Padeswood. Essentially what happens at Padeswood is freight will come in on one side of the platform and then has to wait there before transferring over to the other side and into the site itself.
"So infrastructure works are needed to enable freight to get in and out rather than wait on the railway line. That then pulls the cork out the bottle to come extent, that will enable us to increase train frequency to half hourly, and that work will take about three years at Padeswood.
"It ensures we can then get to the point where we have four trains an hour operating through to Liverpool."
Solving this problem then leads to the next stage on enhancing services between north east Wales and the city of Liverpool.
The link currently sees trains go between Wrexham and Bidston on the Wirral. Passengers then have to change to get services into Liverpool. This is because that section is electrified and diesel trains cannot run on those lines.
To create a direct service from Wrexham to Liverpool would require a different solution. The Transport Secretary said: "In order to achieve that ultimate ambition we would have to upgrade signalling along the line and also utilise the latest train technology, like electric trains that are battery operated. That's the sort of technology we want to utilise. You can't take diesel through the tunnel."
A Network Rail document said: "In the longer term, potential deployment of rolling stock with the ability to operate on battery power for part of their journey may provide the ability in an affordable manner to improve the service offering between the Wrexham – Bidston route and Liverpool."
Clearing these bottlenecks will do wonders for services to and from North Wales, before we even talk about electrification. Only time will tell if there's the political will - and most importantly the money - to make this happen.
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