Wales is pretty unique in many ways, both good and bad; we have membership of a decidedly unenviable yet small club of European nations, especially when it comes to the provision of electrified railways, along with Albania and Moldova, Wales does not to possess a single mile of electrified railway. While only 33% of the rail network is electrified (some of which pre dated the start of World War II) when compared to 100% in Switzerland, 73% in the Netherlands and 57% in Germany.
When the plans to electrify the rail line from Bristol to were unveiled in 2009, and Plaid discovered that Wales did not feature, so it was only natural that Plaid kicked off about it. Some serious negotiations followed and Plaid, and
Ieuan Wyn Jones AM, Deputy First Minister, worked exceptionally hard to ensure that the draft of the scheme which originally proposed leaving out the Wales section of the network by terminating the electrification at Bristol, was duly amended so that electrification work would push as far west as Swansea.
Personally, I would have gone one step further and asked Westminster to start the electrification process from the Swansea end of the line, because I trust New Labour about as far as I could through a grand piano, one handed up hill in a heavy driving sleet against the strong wind. That thought aside, we with the prospect of a New Labour defeat at the next election, what about a potential Tory commitment to the project? Well we do have Nick Bourne, waxing lyrical about improving public transport in Wales, which if nothing else might be interpreted to suggest that some of the Tories may have shifted in their opposition to any positive thoughts about Wales.
Mr Bourne, in his
blog says;
"Similarly, supportive of a green agenda, will be a commitment to enhance existing rail services in Wales. I believe strongly that we need, once resources allow, a high speed rail link to Swansea from Paddington. This underpins the union as well as being of immense economic and social significance for Wales and the west of England. As a priority we need to see what the cost of this is and when it can be reasonably delivered.Additionally we need to look at opening new stations, improving existing rail services and possibly opening or re-opening rail lines.I have always been a strong supporter of rail. Once it may have looked like romantic quixoticism, now happily it makes social, cultural and economic sense as well, and contributes to saving the planet.That is why I am keen, as is the Party, to look at ways of enhancing rail services in Wales."Now this all sounds very good, very sensible, very inspirational, etc but – not quite true, as far as the Conservatives in London are concerned. Meanwhile back in October 2009 at the Tory party conference, Theresa Villiers, the Tory Shadow Transport Secretary has a
very different idea on proposed plans to finally begin the electrification of the main line between London and Swansea, which were
outlined by Lord Adonis ,the New Labour Transport Secretary, in The Times (23rd July 2009) on by stating that it was not possible to give a “cast iron guarantee”.
The depressing impression that you get is that the Tories are going to pursue their clearly stated intention of hacking the hell out of the public purse, by pursing traditional Thatcherite polices of ‘slash and burn’ when it comes to capital projects in an effort to rapidly reduce the borrowing deficit which has been made worse by the best part of 30 years of what could be described a ‘relaxed’ regulation of the banking sector, which led us to the banking crisis.
All our efforts may yet come to nothing if, the Tories win power in London power in May – with a fresh agenda that aims to specifically make serious cuts in capital projects. Our own experience tells us that when the Tories are in power, public services (and ironically military spending – there was a hard review of defense expenditure prior to the Falkland’s War, which effectively gave a green light to the Argentineans to invade) have been dramatically cut in order to try to reduce the size of the state.
Wales needs a modern rail service, with smooth connections to European markets for passenger and freight and with UK Government trying to persuade wants people to make less use of their cars and trying to cut carbon emissions, electrification of the railways is the way to go – a win, win. We can't let the Tories block Wales' rail electrification that way Wales will lose out twice over.
