Funding for Rail Infrastructure

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:01 pm on 4 June 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:01, 4 June 2019

I thank the Member for that additional question. His own interest in, and commitment to, railways in Wales is known around the Chamber and was very clearly demonstrated during the time that he was First Minister here. He's right, of course—we have 11 per cent of Network Rail's route length here in Wales and we have around 2 per cent of money spent on network enhancements here. Now, the Secretary of State for Transport, Mr Grayling, when he announced that he would not be going ahead with his party's manifesto commitment to electrification of the railway line all the way to Swansea, said that there were five different business cases that he would now be taking forward—a business case, as Carwyn Jones has said, to improve Cardiff railway station, to have additional stations around Swansea, to have improved journey times between south and north Wales and across our border into England. To date, Llywydd, not a single one of those business cases announced by the Secretary of State for Transport at the time of cancelling electrification—that's nearly two years ago—not a single one of those business cases has been seen, not a single penny of funding has been committed and there is no clarity at all on next steps and timescales to live up to that second set of commitments. It's no wonder that the Member draws the contrast between the things that have been done here in Wales to support our railways and the complete failure on the part of the UK Government to discharge its responsibilities—responsibilities it has promised, responsibilities that it owes to people in Wales.