Trafnidiaeth Canolbarth Cymru (TraCC) has pleasure in presenting its Regional Transport Plan Annual Progress Report (APR) for the 2012/13 financial year.

This is TraCC’s third APR since the TraCC Regional Transport Plan (2010 – 2015) received Ministerial approval in December 2009.

This report provides evidence of the effectiveness and benefits of TraCC’s regional transport programme to the public, service users and other stakeholders and has been prepared following Welsh Government guidance, which sets out the required content and structure of the report.

The TraCC Vision for the rail in Mid Wales is for:

“A modern, efficient, safe, reliable and accessible rail network and services which supports the community life and growth of the mid Wales economy and offers a real alternative to road travel, particularly for longer distance travel within, and to and from, the region”.

TraCC has commissioned the Regional Highways Strategy in order to put in place a coherent approach for highways in the Region which can be used to guide RTP investment, ensure regional priorities are fully represented in national spending and support the Local Authority programmes for highways investment and maintenance. The strategy is for all highways in the Region, whether they are managed by the Local Authorities or the Trunk Road Agencies, in order to ensure that priorities are based on need and potential benefits rather than on responsibilities.

The purpose of this strategy is therefore to provide a framework for highways investment. The strategy document provides a long-term direction. The document comprises an overview of the policy context, the highways context, problems and opportunities, and the strategy.

TraCC RTP APR 2011-12

TraCC RTP APR 2011-12 Appendices

TraCC RTP APR 2011-12 Executive Summary

Trafnidiaeth Canolbarth Cymru (TraCC) is the local authority Regional Transport Consortium for Mid Wales.  Each year TraCC is required to prepare and submit to the Welsh Government an Annual Progress Report (APR) for its Regional Transport Plan (RTP) and it must follow Welsh Government Guidance on its content and layout.

Like the other three Welsh Regional Transport Consortia, TraCC published its Regional Transport Plan (RTP) in 2009 and was the result of extensive stakeholder and public consultation.  The RTP strategy document received Ministerial approval in December 2009 but the proposed Five Year Capital Funding Programme did not. 

The RTP Annual Progress Report (APR) for 2011/12 has now been submitted to the Welsh Government and has been published on the TraCC website.  This is the second year for which TraCC has published an RTP APR. 

TraCC receives grant funding from the Welsh Government to deliver transport schemes across the Mid Wales region.  Each year, TraCC must prepare and submit a Delivery Plan setting out how it proposes to spend the grant funding allocation made available by the Welsh Government to TraCC and its local authorities.  TraCC is responsible for developing and managing the delivery of regional grant funding programmes which currently include the following:

• RTP Capital Grant;
• RTP Revenue Grant;
• Road Safety Capital Grant;
• Road Safety Revenue Grant; and
• Sustainable Travel Centre Revenue.

All other transport funding is currently provided to or allocated by the individual local authorities such as funding for local bus services.  The Welsh Government directly funds and manages improvements and maintenance on its Trunk Road network in association with its Trunk Road Agents.  Rail passenger services and infrastructure are generally funded by the Rail Industry, UK and Welsh Governments.  These organisations are separately required to monitor and report progress for these other very important areas of highways and transportation.

The TraCC RTP APR for 2011/12 once again shows that TraCC is very capable of managing the funding that is made available to it and indeed, being able to use any other funding that has been provided in addition to its original grant funding allocation.  TraCC has consistently said that it requires more funding than is currently provided to the Consortium.  Our success is the result of effective management of individual projects at a local authority level and effective scrutiny at the regional programme level.  The RTP APR continues to demonstrate that TraCC adds value to existing partnership arrangements in Mid Wales and has led on the development of new regional transport policies and project initiatives which benefit the people of Mid Wales.  The detailed RTP Monitoring Report is beginning to show good progress in meeting shared transport aims and objectives and positive trends.  There are however still a number of fundamental challenges that we must collectively work together to address in rural Mid Wales.  These include continuing to tackle social exclusion and improving access to essential services and opportunities - such as health, jobs, education and skills training. This will be set against a backdrop of increased pressure on national, regional and local budgets. We must all try to do more with less.

It is expected that next year's RTP APR will show further good progress and will reflect on what is already becoming a particularly busy and challenging year for TraCC and its local authorities.