Transport secretary accused of securing 'literally nothing' in railway investment west of Cardiff from UK Government

Emily Price

The Welsh Government has been accused of securing "literally nothing at all" in railway investment west of Cardiff from the UK Government’s recent spending review.

The critiscm from Plaid Cymru's Cefin Campbell came during a scrutiny session on the work of Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Ken Skates.

Last month, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she had delivered what the Welsh Government had asked for in her spending review.

The package of funding included £445m for Welsh railways over the next 10 years.

Opposition parties in the Senedd have argued that this is less than what Wales is owed.

[mid-content-banner]

Chronic delays

In the Senedd on on Wednesday (July 2), Campbell referred to a number of examples where investment was needed in mid and west Wales - including alleviating "chronic delays" on the Heart of Wales line, ensuring more regular services on the Cambrian Line and building a new railway station in St Clears.

Quizzing the Transport Secretary, the Mid and West Wales MS said: "Rachel Reeves said that the Welsh Government had got everything it asked for, including when it comes to rail investment.

"My question to you today is simple: is this true? And if it is true, why did you ask for nothing, literally nothing at all, to invest in the railways west of Cardiff?

"Because the truth is that not only did the spending review deliver painfully little for Welsh rail, it delivered literally nothing for the railways in the region that I represent."

[lower-mid-content-banner]

'Unfair'

Skates described the comments as "wholly unfair" adding that he would not "play regions off against each other".

He said: "It's absolutely right that we take forward the projects that are most advanced, that we can draw down the funding for, otherwise we could be promised the money, it would never be spent. We will spend that money.

"We will deliver the relief lines in south Wales. We will be building five stations along those relief lines in the years to come. We will be resolving capacity constraints on the Wrexham to Liverpool line.

"And I know you don't like that line, but we're going to be doing the job in the next three years. We're going to be resolving difficulties on the north Wales main line, which is holding back frequencies.

Funding

He added: "As a result of all of this investment, we're going to be seeing a 50 per cent increase in rail services across north Wales from next May.

"We will double rail services between Wrexham and Chester. We will see improved services.

"We will have two trains an hour on the Wrexham-Liverpool line in the next three years as a result of this funding.

"We'll see additional services in south Wales as well as a result of being able to deal with the Cardiff west junction.

"We want to make sure that investment takes place across Wales, but you have to make sure that you build up an investment pipeline.

"That's what we've done, and in total it's valued over £4 billion for the longer term, and that includes huge projects in your region."