Welsh port closure exercise planned as transport adapts to extreme weather

The Welsh Government is preparing an exercise to test how partners on both sides of the Irish Sea would respond to an unforeseen closure of a Welsh port, alongside changes to rail, bus and road planning for extreme weather. Deputy Minister for Transport Mark Hooper set out the work on Tuesday 13 October. The exercise is being prepared over the coming months. It is a planning scenario, not an announcement that a port is closing.

Heat, flooding and winter preparation

Transport for Wales is working with Network Rail to strengthen maintenance and inspection, improve train cooling-system reliability and introduce enhanced weather monitoring. The government says extreme heat this summer caused some trains to be withdrawn because of cooling problems and brought speed restrictions. For buses, officials are building flooding, overheating, severe weather and energy resilience into franchising work as fleets are renewed. That describes the approach to future vehicles, rather than a completed replacement of the fleet. Salt and grit stocks are being monitored ahead of winter. Resilience and adaptation training is being rolled out across all 22 local authorities to help manage flooding, landslips and storm effects on local roads.

What the ports exercise will test

The prolonged disruption at Holyhead in December 2024 prompted the creation of the Irish Sea Taskforce. The planned exercise will consider an unforeseen closure at a Welsh port and how partners should respond. Holyhead, Fishguard and Pembroke Dock are the major ferry gateways identified in the announcement. The government says lessons from storms, floods and heatwaves will shape future transport investment, including rail, buses, Metro and roads. Its release gives no total funding figure or exact date for the exercise. Hooper said the network could be better prepared and more responsive, while acknowledging that every disruption caused by extreme weather could not be prevented.