Pembrokeshire politcians have aimed fire at the Welsh Government for securing "literally nothing at all" in terms of railway investment west of Cardiff. Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire Conservative Senedd Member Samuel Kurtz and Mid and West Wales Plaid Cymru SM Cefin Campbell both criticized the Welsh Government in the Senedd on Wednesday (July 2) for failing to secure financial investment for any railway west of Cardiff as part of the UK Government’s recent Spending Review. Criticism came from Kurtz and Campbell during a scrutiny session on the work of Ken Skates, the Welsh Government's Cabinet Secretary for Transport. Mr Campbell referred to a number of examples where investment was badly needed, including alleviating chronic delays on the Heart of Wales line, improving overcrowding and ensuring more regular services on the Cambrian Line and building a new railway station in St Clears. In June, the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she had delivered everything the Welsh Government had asked for as part of a £445 million package in her Spending Review. Referring to this, Mr Campbell said in the Senedd:“Why did you ask for nothing – literally nothing at all – to invest in any railway west of Cardiff? "Because the truth is, not only has the Spending Review delivered very little for railways in Wales, literally nothing has been won for railways in the region I represent. "Do you think, Cabinet Secretary, that the people of Mid and West Wales deserve less?" he continued, stating that nothing had been done by the Welsh Government towards a new station in St Clears. Taking the baton on, Mr Kurtz called Mr Skates ‘disingenuous’ when saying that he was not pitting regions of Wales off against each other. “Here was a project ready to go at St Clears, I'd met with Transport for Wales and DfT officials on the site, there was a project ready to go, yet five stations within 13 miles of each other in Cardiff and Newport get the green light before a project in west Wales that is ready to be delivered!” he remarked. “So, tell me, Cabinet Secretary, if that's not playing off areas of Wales against each other, what is? Because I've got a community that supports this railway station being reopened at St Clears, it supports the investment that should be coming, that was guaranteed by the previous Government, but your predecessor had said could not be delivered. “So, why has St Clears fallen foul, when five stations get built in the east of Wales?” Sharing on social media after the Senedd debate, Mr Kurtz said: “I’ve raised this project a number of times, met with TfW, Network Rail and local councillors on site and heard from the community how needed the St Clears railway station is. We only want one station, not five! “When the St Clears station project - which has been ready to go for a number of years- gets ignored, it’s hard not to think that the Welsh Labour Government are prioritising one area of Wales over another.”
00:00Diolch mawr, Clywyd. Will the Secretary make a statement on investment in railways in mid and west Wales?
00:07Yes, we've invested £800 million in rolling stock with brand new and newly refurbished trains benefiting passengers across mid and west Wales as the whole of Wales.
00:17And our investment has enabled transport for Wales to operate more services, boost capacity and deliver sustained performance improvements for passengers.
00:25Governor Secretary, following the spending review, Rachel Reeves said that the Welsh Government had got everything it asked for, including when it comes to rail investment.
00:36My 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?
00:47Because 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.
00:59Nothing to fix chronic delays and cancellations on the Heart of Wales line, which are some of the worst customer satisfaction ratings across the whole of Wales.
01:08There's nothing to improve the Cumbrian line, nothing for a new station in St. Clair's, something which this Welsh Government has committed to, but has shown no intention of ever delivering.
01:20I could go on, but we'd be here for a very long time.
01:23So are you of the view, Cabinet Secretary, that the people of mid and west Wales deserve less?
01:29And if not, why did the Welsh Government not even ask, never mind fight, for the kind of investment our railways so desperately need?
01:38I think the question is wholly unfair.
01:40First of all, it's a comprehensive spending review that covers a three-year period.
01:44If you can't deliver within that time, you can't build within that time, then it's a struggle to get the money to actually build something that you're actually going to have to send the money back for because you won't complete it.
01:52Instead, we have now, for the first time, development money.
01:56Development money.
01:58For years, we haven't been able to progress schemes, not just in southwest Wales, mid Wales, but also across the whole of Wales.
02:04We haven't been able to pursue them unless we have funded them.
02:07But funding rail development when it's not devolved is extremely difficult when you're comparing that sort of investment against the need to invest in hospitals.
02:15Investment in new stations, seven new stations, will be taken forward once we are able to get them to that detailed design space with a full business case available.
02:27And we will be seeking to draw down funding in future spending rounds.
02:31But the most advanced projects were agreed between DFT and the Welsh Government because they are the projects that can be taken forward within this spending period.
02:41And I'm not going to play regions off against each other.
02:44It's absolutely right that we take forward the projects that are most advanced, that we can draw down the funding for.
02:51Otherwise, we could be promised the money.
02:53It would never be spent.
02:54We will spend that money.
02:56We will deliver the relief lines in South Wales.
02:58We will be building five stations along those relief lines in the years to come.
03:03We will be resolving capacity constraints on the Wrexham to Liverpool.
03:06I know you don't like that line, but we're going to be doing the job in the next three years.
03:10We're going to be resolving difficulties on the North Wales mainline, which is holding back frequencies.
03:15As a result of all of this investment, we're going to be seeing a 50% increase in rail services across North Wales from next May.
03:23We will double rail services between Wrexham and Chester.
03:26We will see improved services.
03:28We will have two trains an hour on the Wrexham-Liverpool line in the next three years as a result of this funding.
03:34We'll see additional services in South Wales as well as a result of being able to deal with the Cardiff-West Junction.
03:41But we want to make sure that investment takes place across Wales.
03:45But you have to make sure that you build up an investment pipeline.
03:49That's what we've done.
03:50And in total, it's valued at over £4 billion for the longer term.
03:53And that includes huge projects in your region.
03:56Samuel Kurtz.
03:59Kevin Campbell for this question.
04:01It's quite disingenuous when you're saying that you're not pitting the regions of Wales off against each other.
04:06When there was a project ready to go at St. Clair's, I'd met with TFW, DFT officials on site.
04:13There was a project ready to go.
04:15Yet five stations within 13 miles of each other in Cardiff and Newport get the green light before a project in West Wales,
04:23which is ready to be delivered.
04:25So tell me, Cabinet Secretary, if that's not playing off areas of Wales against each other, what is?
04:30Because I've got a community that supports this railway station being reopened at St. Clair's.
04:35It supports the investment that should be coming, that was guaranteed by the previous government,
04:39but your predecessor had said could not be delivered.
04:42So why has St. Clair's fallen foul when five stations get built in the east of Wales?
04:47Again, I don't think it's a fair question to ask.
04:50We are actually working with the region on this particular proposal.
04:53We've been working with UK government as well to develop plans for a station there.
04:58And that's all part of the pipeline of longer-term enhancements that I've just outlined to Kevin Campbell.
05:04We're working as well with the local authority and the corporate joint committee as they put together their regional transport plan.
05:12It will be for the region to be able to advise Welsh Government on what it thinks is a priority in that area,
05:17not just in terms of responsibilities that the region holds itself, but also responsibilities that Welsh ministers and UK Government ministers have.
05:23We will work collectively to deliver this scheme.
05:26And we'll work with Transport for Wales as well to deliver detailed designs for that scheme.
05:32The problem with rail, the problem with rail, as Lord Hendy himself has identified,
05:37it often takes longer to deliver, costs more than one would hope, but once you've built it, no-one regrets doing it.
05:44Jane Dodds.
05:45Good afternoon, Cabinet Secretary.
05:47Just to follow through on some of those issues, I'd like to specifically ask you about two of the lines that are in mid and west Wales.
