Rail Transport

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:33 pm on 21 March 2023.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:33, 21 March 2023

Wow. You couldn't make it up, Llywydd, but no doubt somebody did for the Member, because she read it out for us. Look, what we've heard, even with the thinnest of material, wasn't worth the time of the Senedd. The notion that the UK Government is serious about public transport, the idea that HS2 has been slightly pushed back, where it now disappears well on the other side of the general election—. Let me just repeat the figures. I know we've heard them before on the floor of the Senedd, but they tell you everything you need to know about the record of the UK Government. While we will electrify, in those parts of the network that are under the control of the Senedd, over 170 km of railway line here in Wales, for those lines that are under the control of the UK Government, while in the UK as a whole, 38 per cent of those lines are electrified, and, in England, over 40 per cent are electrified, here in Wales, the UK Government has managed to electrify 2 per cent—2 per cent for Wales, 40 per cent for England. Does the Member really think that that is a record she's prepared to defend?