Plaid Cymru in Newport has long called for a new railway station to serve Caerleon and Ponthir to be added to the original Burns Commission recommendations, which we are still waiting for, as a matter of urgency. Many people in Newport, welcomed the commitment, a few years ago, to build new railway stations at Tredegar Park, Somerton, Llanwern, and Magor.
Like many things in under a Labour in Wales government it seems to take a long time to get things done, even when there is a Labour government in Westminster. This is partially because of the lack of devolved control of network rail and transport planning and also perhaps down to the lack of any real political will to do anything save to administer an imperfect devolved devolution settlement and live with a real lack of investment in our railways.
Certainly both the Conservatives and Labour have massively under-invested in Wales. Over the last 25 years if Wales had had the same funding per head for railways as England it would have received about another £2.5 billion. However you look at - this is an enormous amount of money for a small country like Wales.
Is it any wonder that such a small percentage of the railways in Wales have been electrified;
o England 45%
o Scotland 33%
o Wales 9%
Most of the percentage for Wales has not been funded by Westminster, but by the Labour in Wales Welsh government investing in creating the South Wales Metro. Prior to this only 3.7% of Welsh railways were electrified.
Given this lack of funding from Westminster the government of Wales has had to take money from other budgets to electrify Welsh railways and buy new rolling stock. Imagine the difference £2.5 billion could have made either spent on railway investment or on schools or hospitals.
In 2020 the Labour in Wales Welsh government calculated that the underspend in Wales between 2001 and 2029 would bearound £5.1 billion on the basis of population, or £10.2 billion on the basis of route length (Wales has about 11% of total track).
Yet the current Labour in Westminster government in London is continuing to short-change Wales and make matters worse.
With expenditure over the rest of the life of this parliament of £25.3 billion announced for HS2, £15.6 billion for English regional transport (much of which will likely be spent on rail), £3.5 billion for a Trans Pennine rail route, £2.5 billion for an Oxford Cambridge route, £1.75 billion for a Midlands rail hub and £2.2 billion for Transport for London about £50 billion of railway projects in England have been announced and only £445million for Wales - less than 1%.
So spending per head in Wales will be about one sixth of that in England under the latest spending plans, with the Treasury First Secretary literally telling Wales that we should be ‘a bit more grateful’ to get even this…
Plaid Cymru in Newport and Monmouthshire has long called for our existing railway stations to be significantly upgraded as part of the process of creating a functioning South Wales metro. The Party of Wales broadly welcomed the report of the South East Wales Transport Commission which recommend ways to reduce congestion on the M4 motorway without building a new relief road around Newport.
Plaid has long called for greater investment in public transport, with a much better integration and coordination of rail and bus networks and integrated ticketing across all services – with the emphasis that it is needed sooner rather than later. Now with the prospect of a Plaid Cymru government in Cardiff, we should have a government that will consistently fight for Wales.
No comments:
Post a Comment