Wales transport chief accused of ‘toothless, halfway house’ ambition for railways in Wales
The model Wales' transport minister wants to pursue is a "halfway house" and will simply create a "toothless" organsiation unable to secure any extra funding for Wales' underfunded rail infrastructure, a Plaid Cymru[1] MP has said. Ben Lake criticised Wales Transport Secretary Ken Skates' approach ahead of a crucial few months for the nation's rail infrastructure as the UK government makes decisions that will shape the Welsh rail network for decades to come. The Ceredigion Preseli MP was speaking as part of our campaign to end the second class treatment of the rail network in Wales.
The UK government has two opportunities this year both to reset the historic underfunding of the Welsh rail network in the medium term and then to put in place a framework that will ensure long-term parity with England. You can
The Welsh Government is lobbying Westminster to provide fair funding but does not want to take over responsibility for the Welsh rail network itself. Two rail experts have cast doubt on that approach arguing that the only way to ensure long-term parity of spending with England is through full devolution.
Mr Lake agreed with the two experts Stuart Cole and Mark Barry[7] saying the Welsh Government's approach would fail because Whitehall "doesn't get the nations and regions".
Mr Lake said the combination of the Chancellor's spring Comprehensive Spending Review and UK Labour's rail legislation this year, which will reshape the architecture of responsibility for the rail network in the UK, means this is critical year for the future of the Welsh rail network when fair funding was possible. "You have a situation where Welsh Government[8], for many years now, have identified key pieces of rail infrastructure and projects they want to see materialise and prioritised as part of the Network Rail control period of investments, and yes that's partly including things like the South Wales Metro but other aspirations like reinstating a line between Aberystwyth[9] and Carmarthen[10], these have all been put forward by Welsh Government as areas being open to improvement, and previously, with the Conservative government, they were very open to some of those, but while that's no longer the case, there's a change for the Labour[11] government to actually progress these plans". Ken Skates' ambition is to win extra funding for Welsh rail and then see it administered through a Wales Rail Board.
He has argued this has "proved to be an effective vehicle for inter-governmental collaboration" and "its role should be affirmed and expanded in relation to the governance of rail investment in Wales". Mr Lake however said this was, at best, a "good halfway house". He said: "You manage to square the circle of not having to devolve the powers while giving a bit more influence and coherence to the decisions in Wales.
Where it falls down though is that it works well in an age of plenty when there's enough money to go around, where it doesn't work as well, where we are now in tightened belts and with a Treasury loathed to spend much on rail enhancements, then, the board is toothless." He said it effectively means there is a board which will suggest things, but those will never materialise but the Treasury, which controls the purse strings will not grant them.
Keir Starmer has a historic chance this year to end decades of second-class treatment of the Welsh rail network. Far less money is spent per person on rail in Wales compared to England and that has left us with far less electrified track and without the capacity to build a transport network fit for the nation's needs.
This spring Mr Starmer's government is conducting a multi-year spending review which gives him the opportunity to reset the amount of funding allocated to the rail network in Wales.
One academic told us the Wales always comes at the bottom of the pile[13] and will continue to unless there is full devolution. Another told us there was no appetite in either Cardiff Bay or Westminster for devolution and this lack of ambition was repeating the biggest mistake the Welsh Government had ever made[14]. There are fears that unless there is full devolution, Wales will suffer every time the UK government cuts spending but protects major projects in England, as is happening right now[15].
However the Welsh Government believes fair funding can be delivered without full devolution, which is does not want. And the head of a passenger body told us he didn't care who got the money as long as they did a good job with it, adding more cash could make a huge difference[16]. "I think where it's a little better than the old system is that previously, Welsh Government would feed into the old Network Rail process, whereas at least now there would be more coherence," he said.
"The way I would argue - and Labour will argue against this - s that what you have with a rail delivery board is a mechanism to more effectively identify rail priorities in Wales, should there be money to be spent,. They cannot make the decision of how much money will be spent in Wales. So you fall foul of that big locked door of the Treasury who say they will fund TPE, east West rail and electrification of certain sections.
They've made it very clear. This rail board isn't a bad thing but it doesn't have the powers to challenge the Treasury that says 'no'." Asked about the mood music in Westminster, he said it appears that Wales is not on the list of major infrastructure projects Labour plans to pursue. "It appears there's been a real entrenchment by Treasury since Labour assuming office last year, they've really cut back on any aspirations or addressing the regional inequality when it comes to infrastructure spending.
While I wouldn't want to deprive communities on the Trans Pennine route, or Oxford of Cambridge line, but I think it's quite jarring that all those infrastructure projects are in one nation of the UK and arguably the greatest benefit falls to the south east of England. "There is no talk whatsoever of the major projects for Wales, be it the belated electrification of the North Wales Mainline, or completion of electrifying the South Wales Mainline to Swansea[17], which was originally the plan, there is no talk about network or infrastructure enhancements." Plaid Cymru wants rail infrastructure to be fully devolved to the Welsh Government.
But does not believe there is the awareness in London of the benefits it could bring.
"I'm convinced that the centralised UK state doesn't get the nations and regions. It is hardwired into them to centralise power and decisions in Whitehall, primarily, and it's then not surprising to me that you have hundreds of thousands of very clever, civil servants who do a good job and very contentious but their life experiences are all the south east, so when it comes to the big idea of how you improve the UK economy or economic output or productivity it is all very London-centric. It is crazy to think that you have quite a broad range of British politicians from Heseltine on one end to a number of Labour figures like Andy Burnham beating the drum for further devolution, and let's be honest, what they mean is decentralisation of power from the centre that is in London and I think the economic case is very strong."
Investment in Wales would, he said, unlock potential in the west of Wales. "One of the big big issues we have is that the hard rail infrastructure isn't there to really support the further development of industry and business. Road haulage is great but you can only take it so far. If you think of the benefits of rail infrastructure in England it's actually [the impact] on freight capacity.
That turns the dial for the Treasury, that's what they look for with their economic assessments, it's not necessarily passenger numbers, but freight capacity. "In Aberystywth, for example, the Cambrian Line is in dire need of investment, in terms of the line. They are running timber freight trains from Bow Street to Chirk, which makes a lot of sense because there is a lot of forestry in that part of Wales, it takes dozens of lorries every week from the road, which is great.
It's cheaper for the timber industry to transport the wood, and it makes everything a lot more productive. The problem we've got is there's only so much capacity that can be run on the line because in many parts you don't have passing points, so if you're trying to run freight trains and passenger trains along it, timetabling is a real nightmare. "The reason you wouldn't look at that, if you were the UK Government is because it's such a little line, in a very poor part of the country and economically it pales into insignificance when compared to the economy of the south of England, so why would you spend money there?
If however, you were to maybe looking at things from Cardiff then your view would be very different, because you'd think 'the length of the Cambrian Line in mid Wales services a high percentage of the Welsh Government's woodland estate, let alone private forestry, and it would take off more of those blasted lorries then actually the A44 might be a little bit safer, and nicer to drive' and all of a sudden it's more important. Read the biggest stories in Wales first by signing up to our daily newsletter here.[19][18] "Of all these things speak to the importance of decentralising decision making as close to the people it affects," he said.
In terms of Great British Railways doing anything for Wales. "I think there could be, but I don't think any benefits would be felt immediately, and I'm not convinced they will pursue some of the opportunities this new law will present fully. Where it could do a lot of good is say the South Wales mainline, for example, if the rail operators are effectively nationalised and run by GB Rail then you could see there could be more coordinated services. "instead of having a situation where there's some duplication, and GWR and TFW doing the same trains, but getting in each other's way, you could see a way they rationalise things so all of sudden you have some express services that do regional transport things quickly and then more local services.
That would mean you don't have the situation, as in the present, where the train stops at Carmarthen and no longer says it is going to Fishguard. "It's not going to bring more money into it, that's very unlikely," he said. "There has to be a coherent, for all the work done in Welsh Government and to some extent, UK Government, there still isn't a plan that you can hold up and point to, or an idea of what is we want for our transport. At times, it's that we want to build more motorways and push everything to electric vehicles but other times it's about high speed routes, which is again, is fine, but you need to stick with it.
"When you compare with some comparable European countries, France or Germany, France decided we are going to have certain infrastructure for city to city or region to region connections, the TGF trains, and that's all they do. Then we'll have a totally separate infrastructure for local services. HS2 was trying to be everything to everyone and failing.
We haven't even agreed or settled on what it is we want."
Our campaign for fair funding
(Image: Marc White / WalesOnline)
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