The Secretary of State for Wales, Joanna Meriel Stevens, said that Welsh rail development is her “number one priority” during an appearance before the Welsh Affairs Committee on 15 January 2025.
“I am going into the Spending Review with rail as a number one priority for Wales. The UK and Welsh Governments recognised that Wales had not received its fair share of funding in the past, and that the Transport Commissions for North and South-East Wales, and the Union Connectivity Review provided a blueprint for investment,” the Secretary of State said.
However, the Secretary of State did not commit to reclassifying HS2 as an England-only project, rather than its current status of an England and Wales project which prevents Wales from accessing compensatory funding.
She was also asked to indicate a timeline of planned actions but said she could not “pre-empt” the Government’s Spending Review.
The Secretary of State’s words followed the Committee’s publication of a letter from Government ministers Heidi Alexander and Jo Stevens, admitting to underinvestment in Welsh rail.
In the letter, ministers concede that railways in Wales have seen “low levels of enhancement spending in recent years, particularly in the context of major investments such as HS2”. They write that this makes it more difficult to “realise the modal shift needed to sustain a continuous enhancements pipeline.”
However, the ministers do not commit to specific amounts of funding for Welsh rail development. They say that the prioritisation of rail service improvement projects proposed by the Wales Rail Board will contribute to the Spring Spending Review.
Responding to the session, the Chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee, Ruth Jones, said that “communities across Wales are being held back by historic underinvestment in our railways. Today’s news that improving Welsh rail will be the Secretary of State’s number one priority in the next spending review is most welcome.”
The letter of the Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales was sent on 13 January 2024.
Three years ago, the Welsh Affairs Committee published its report on rail infrastructure in Wales. One of the Committee’s key recommendations was the creation of a ‘Wales Rail Board’ to support a more joined-up approach to the planning, funding and delivery of rail enhancements in Wales. The Wales Rail Board was established 2022 and includes senior representatives from the Department for Transport, the Welsh Government, Wales Office, Network Rail and Transport for Wales.
Responding to the Committee’s recommendations, the two governments agreed that the Board should identify and agree a prioritised set of proposals for rail infrastructure investment in Wales. In the short-term, the Wales Rail Board has proposed that immediate priority should be to develop and deliver the recommendations of the North Wales and South East Wales Transport Commissions, led by Lord Burns.
In North Wales, the focus will be on improving rail services along the Borderlands line between Wrexham and Bidston and on the North Wales Mainline – unlocking capacity through Chester station. This will include working jointly with Liverpool City Region to continue the development and delivery of a metro style service directly connecting Wrexham and Liverpool.
In South East Wales, the Burns proposals include upgrading the relief lines between Cardiff and the Severn Tunnel, and the development of five ‘Burns stations’ in Cardiff East, Newport West, Somerton, Llanwern and Magor and Undy. Initial development work has been completed and demonstrates the potential of these stations and new connecting services to promote growth, support new housing and improve connectivity to and from major economic centres. It will also reduce reliance on private car travel, providing people with real transport choices and easing congestion along the M4 corridor.
The letter says that “historic underfunding in Wales’ rail network, the lack of Barnett funding [Barnett formula takes the annual change in a UK government department’s budget and multiplies it by two figures considering several factors] for HS2 and the false promise of the previous Government to electrify the North Wales mainline has led to major political challenges and fostered widespread cynicism and distrust. We must work together to address this and develop a deliverable, long-term pipeline of rail infrastructure improvements, as we committed to in the Welsh Labour General Election Manifesto.”
In the letter, signed by Ken Skates, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, he says that he is pleased “to report that both governments, and industry partners in Wales, continue to work collaboratively on the delivery of improvements to the rail network in Wales. This includes a major enhancement of Cardiff Central station, a jointly funded Metro link between Cardiff Central and Cardiff Bay as well as plans to deliver a 50% increase in TfW services operating on the North Wales mainline.”
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