WITH a glint in his eye and a lilting confidence in his voice, transport boss Moir Lockhead is a rather pleased man.

The chief executive of FirstGroup has just caught wind of the Department for Transport's announcement about a new fleet of super express trains.

The £7.5 billion project will see carriages hurtling along the Great Western lines at speeds of 186mph and will create more than 12,500 jobs. Sir Moir said: "This long term investment is welcome news for the rail industry."

But what will it mean for passengers and businesses in South West Wales?

It currently takes around two hours to get to the outskirts of London from Cardiff. Tack on Bridgend, Port Talbot and Neath, and you're now looking past the three to four hour mark — that's assuming the all-too predictable delays don't get in the way.

So, that's around £60 for a cheap ticket, that gets you the 180 miles from Swansea to London more than half an hour later than if you had travelled by car.

For those venturing to other major cities routes, such as Manchester, it's not going to be any quicker.

It's perhaps a cruel irony that Britain, which invented the railway, is lagging well behind. A 265-mile journey from Paris to Lyon on super fast train the TGV takes two hours.

In Japan, the Shinkansen — or bullet trains — have topped speeds of 361mph.

And China's magnetic railway, the Maglev — invented by a Brit, has cut down times for Shanghai commuters.

Neath Port Talbot councillor and former Rail Users Consultative Council member John Warman argues the powers that be should be doing more.

He said: "People are disappointed by the Assembly's stance on transport.

"Fares need to be reasonably priced and we need to have a good service. There are benefits to the economy and to communities from having good public transport and that includes the rail network. We are forcing people off trains and onto the roads and that is defeating the environmental arguments.

"Unless something is done to improve public transport links from Wales our economy will be left behind."

Last week there seemed to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

The government announced a £7.5 billion contract has been awarded to a British-led consortium called Agility Trains.

It will build the fleet of new super express trains, which will shorten an average journey from London to Cardiff by 15 minutes.

The high speed trains will replace existing trains that range between 20 to 30 years old.

Despite being larger, the new trains will be 17 per cent lighter and more energy efficient than its counterparts, they will also carry 21 per cent more passengers.

A bullet train it may not be, but Colin Foxall, Passenger Focus chairman, argued it is a step in the right direction.

He said: "Passengers will be pleased by this announcement, it is a significant step forward.

"More modern trains with better performance and passenger capacity are urgently needed.

"We have been working with the Department for Transport and the bidders to ensure the internal layout brings extra benefit and facilities for passengers."

And businesses across the network hope faster trains will lead to a "shrinking" of Britain — helping regional economies by allowing more business to be done in London.

Something which David Begg, the former chairman of the Commission for Integrated Transport, said needs happen.

"It isn't just desirable to shrink journey times, it's essential if we are to deal with capacity constraints on the existing network," said Professor Begg. "We can't simply price people off the railways as a way of solving overcrowding."

But although the super express trains will cut journey times between the Welsh and English capitals by a quarter of an hour, they won't actually be faster than the same journey in 1977, which took one hour and 45 minutes.

And by the time super express arrives in Wales, Morocco and Argentina are set to have trains operating at 200mph or faster.

BUSINESSES in this region, and regular commuters by train to London, may be wondering whether the news of a new fleet of super express trains on the Paddington line is worth getting excited about.

Currently it takes three hours to travel between Swansea High Street to London Paddington stations. One hour of that journey is spent just getting to Cardiff Central.

The new trains, with the promise of speeds up to 186mph, will reduce the journey time between London and Cardiff by 15 minutes. That is not a lot, though getting under the two-hour barrier may prove a psychologically seductive draw for London companies thinking about doing business in the Welsh capital.

Unfortunately, there seems little prospect of further reductions being achieved west of Cardiff. Speed restrictions, and the frequency of stops, rule that out. And there is a danger lurking there.

With journey times being reduced to Cardiff but not beyond, the temptation will be to limit high-speed intercity trains to only between the two capitals, with local stopping trains further west.

That would be very damaging to the regional economy, and should be strongly resisted if proposed. Swansea’s direct link to London remains vital.