No bids from Wales for location of new ‘levelling up’ Great British Railways HQ
Wales is already out of the running for the location of the new Great British Railways HQ, despite 42 locations in England and Scotland being chosen as potential sites.
Great British Railways is the UK Government-owned body that will oversee rail transport in Great Britain from next year.
In February, locations across the country with strong historical links to the railway were encouraged to make the case for why they should be the new home of Great British Railways.
The deadline for expressions of interest passed on Wednesday 16 March, with applications received from England and Scotland – but not Wales.
The Great British Railways Transition Team said the applications were “spread across the nations and regions,” despite only two nations showing an interest.
The team which is leading the design of the future Great British Railways will now review each expression of interest as part of a rigorous assessment process before publishing a shortlist in May.
The public will then have their say with an online vote forming part of the criteria to help identify the new HQ. The winner will be revealed this summer.
Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps said: “It is brilliant to see so many places across the country come forward to be the new home of Great British Railways.
“All the entries show just how proud we should be as a nation of our long railway history.
“Now it’s full steam ahead with building a short list for the public vote, as we unlock all the energy and enthusiasm British people have for trains, to find the home of GBR.”
The UK Government announced in February that as part of their commitment to ‘level-up’ the UK, the new Great British Railways Headquarters will be based outside of London.
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“Great British Railways” What a terrible name for a Quango but then it is out of the De Piffle stable where everything is Great or World Beating and those involved are working terribly hard. I wonder if somebody at the DFT had taken a holiday in Wales and come back to work with a ‘Great Little Trains of Wales’ leaflet. Rip off a Welsh idea and turn it into a three word slogan. Sounds about right.
That logo is clearly a knock off of the banners used at Putin’s One Russia rallies. Fervently nationalistic. Deeply insidious.
Reminds me of the Hakenkreuz, personally.
Since there are 3 countries with separate parliaments & governments.
For public accountability there should be 3 railway HQs. One for each country.
With 3 country railway systems, with European style co-ordination agreements between the 3 operating authorities.
Out of interest Nation.Cymru, Whose responsibility was it to apply? (GovWales or Councils)
Did any Welsh sites meet the requirements to bid?
After all we all know that Wales’ railways have been neglected by UK Government as we receive only a fraction of our fair share of rail infrastructure money.
Who wants another thing with the red white and blue sphincter on it dirtying up our nation?
Levelling up, my rrse!
Will ‘Great British Railways’ bring down the extortionate ticket prices?
I won’t hold my breath!
I have just tried to buy a return ticket from Colwyn Bay to Cardiff = £96! An unjustifiable disgrace!
‘Greedy British Railways’ would be a more appropriate name.
Why bother spending time and money that from previous experience when Wales bid for anything that involves the British government have we ever been awarded anything??
Transport for Wales is ours
We do not need to apply to England for something we are never going to get
Wales only genuine national rail centre was Oswestry the Cambrian Rail HQ of Lord Davies. Sadly it now only enjoys a museum and nearby heritage rail link.
This is another attempt, by Westminster, to promote the UK. It’s too late. I’m not bothered we in Wales did not put a bid in. I like to think it’s because we now know not to fall for this sort of nationalistic load of rubbish. Let’s just gain independence and create our own successful railway system.
I only just noticed the Great British Railways logo is just mangled a British flag…
No wonder why we were left off the plans…
I don’t understand, Welsh railway services in the main are run by Transport for Wales, which is based obviously in Wales, why do we need to bid, to have another railway headquarters building in Wales. I know there are other services that feed into Wales from England but surely Transport for Wales and Scotrail will remain as separate entities after GBR is set up.
Some levelling-up. The irony is, the first steam powered rail journey took place at Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil, and the first fee paying passenger railway was established in Swansea in 1807 taking folk along the sea front, although history revisionists state it was in Stockton & Darlington in 1821, but it’s a lie.
Anyway, why should Wales compete to the be British Rail HQ when we are totally bypassed by Whitehall when it comes to large scale rail infrastructure. It’s like having a HQ for Welsh water located in a desert.