So there we have it - the Labour Westminster Government has committed itself to funding seven new train stations in Wales and has also endorsed a long-term pipeline of rail enhancement schemes worth billions of pounds. Good - get on with it!
The current PM Keir Starmer has given his backing to a wish list of projects set out in a new vision document from Transport for Wales, which over the long term could see £14 billion worth of investments across Wales - although that will be a matter for future Westminster governments.
More immediately, he has confirmed that his Westminster government will provide the finance to deliver six new stations between Cardiff and the Severn Tunnel, as well as a new station at Deeside that will support efforts to increase the capacity and frequency of train services between north Wales and Merseyside
The five stations were recommended by the South East Wales Transport Commission, in the Burns Commission Report, which set up by the Welsh Government after it decided not to proceed with the £1 billon M4 Relief Road, and have an estimated cost of more than £300 million.
These are: Magor and Undy; Llanwern; Cardiff East; Newport West; and Somerton. Along with the smaller Magor and Undy walkway station, each has an indicative price tag of £70 million. All are currently going through the design process ahead of planning. It is anticipated that the Magor station will be the first of the stations to be completed.
This is good news - it just seems to have taken an age to get here. Although from a local perspective the absence of a commitment to build a railway station to service Caerleon remains disappointing - and shows a lack of any real vision.
Yet the Labour Westminster Government’s announcement will have a more than a touch of déjà about it for many people in Wales. The new railway stations were already announced in last year’s Spending Review, with funding spread over a decade. Simply reheating old promises is far from the generational transformation that Wales was promised.
Most people in Wales are aware that our nation has been systematically short-changed on rail for decades, not least through the misclassification of HS2, which has deprived us of billions of pounds in consequential funding.
So without correcting that injustice and devolving rail infrastructure powers in full, Wales will continue to be reliant on short-term funding cycles and overhyped announcements from Westminster - with the knowledge that the goal posts can be moved it the Westminster bubbles priorities change.
Rail funding is still not devolved unlike in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Manchester. As yet we don’t know when and where the money will actually come from. And there is no actual promise or commitment of £14 billion.
Was we have is at best a “potential pipeline of future projects” which Transport for Wales expects to cost £14 billion. Again, the UK Government has not said it will allocate £14 billon. It has said it endorses the vision of these projects.
The devil will lie in the details and the delivery. Westminster promised to electrify the main line from London to Swansea - but by the time the dust settled the promised electrification only got as far as Cardiff. That said but for Plaid’s intervention it would never have gone beyond Bristol.
What we need is a truly transformative approach which would mean fair funding, full powers over rail, and a rail strategy that serves the whole of Wales. That’s what a vote for Plaid Cymru on 7th May 2026 will demand.
