Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:36 pm on 30 November 2021.
I'd like to ask for a debate in Government time to discuss the funding of rail infrastructure in Wales. The disastrous underfunding of our rail network has been highlighted by the UK Government's union connectivity review, which recommends, astonishingly, improving links with England, even though it was the UK Government itself that reneged on its promise to electrify the south Wales main line. Wales Governance Centre research, Trefnydd, shows we lost out on £0.5 billion-worth of rail funding over 10 years, due to rail infrastructure not being devolved, and HS2 will make that worse. The UK Treasury's decision to set the comparability factor for Wales at 0 per cent means we'll get nothing from HS2 expenditure. Scotland will get around £10 billion, Wales will get zero, and this when our trains are already crammed, too often late, and unreliable. So, Trefnydd, I think Members across the Chamber would welcome an opportunity to discuss this crisis and what can be done about it, before we are, in the words of Will Hayward from the Western Mail, condemned to another century of second-class rail.