Senedd debates petition to reopen west-coast railway
Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter
Senedd members debated calls to reopen railway lines along the west coast of Wales to connect north and south but balked at the estimated £2bn cost.
Carolyn Thomas led the debate on June 18 following a near-13,000-name petition calling for the reopening of railway lines to connect the north and south of Wales.
As part of the campaign, in September 2023, Elfed Wyn ap Elwyn, the petitioner, set off on a 10-day trek from Bangor to the Senedd following the old railway as closely as reasonable.
His petition called for the reopening of the railways to reconnect Wales with a west-coast railway connecting Bangor to Cardiff via Carmarthen.
Ms Thomas raised a feasibility study – published in February – on reopening the Bangor to Afon Wen line which shut as part of the Beeching cuts, major route closures in the 1960s.
‘Enormous undertaking’
The petitions committee chair said the research found a third of the 27-mile route was deemed to require minimal intervention but 25% would pose more major challenges.
She said: “If we are looking to develop the infrastructure… and to use a greener method of travel, reinstating and reopening this railway would be a step in the right direction and would be beneficial for all of the communities… along the railway, as well as for Wales as a nation.”
“While the feasibility report focuses on light rail and trams, campaigners would prefer heavy rail, which would allow for faster speeds. They believe passionately that the economic, social and cultural benefits of reopening the railway would make the cost worth paying.”
Ms Thomas told the Senedd the campaigners would like to see a similar piece of work carried out on the feasibility of the Aberystwyth to Carmarthen section of the line.
“All of us here are aware that reconnecting and reopening a rail link between north and south would be an enormous undertaking,” said the Labour politician who represents North Wales.
‘Neglected’
“The feasibility report commissioned by the Welsh Government has made this clear but it also points to a way that it might one day be possible.”
Janet Finch-Saunders, the Conservative Senedd member for Aberconwy, called for the reopening of the Bangor to Caernarfon line which closed in the ’70s.
She said the line would be a huge benefit to people in Caernarfon and help tourists visiting the castle, a Unesco world heritage site, travel more easily to the town directly by train.
Ms Finch-Saunders questioned the practical reality of restoring the west-coast line, saying: “What would be really beneficial for residents in north Wales is improved road infrastructure.”
Peredur Owen Griffiths said travelling from north to south through England is not only inconvenient “but symptomatic of a transport system that has been neglected”.
‘Unfair’
Plaid Cymru’s shadow transport secretary called for powers over rail infrastructure to be devolved from Westminster to Wales. “This is not only unfair, it’s unsustainable,” he said.
Labour’s Lee Waters told the Senedd: “We do know about rail that it is very expensive. We all deeply regret the decision to get rid of these railway lines in the first place. It shouldn’t have happened. But now it has happened, the cost of restoring them is very significant.”
Mr Waters, a former transport minister, said the feasibility study put the indicative costs at restoring the route at about £2bn, warning: “That’s £2bn we don’t have to spend on all the other transport priorities we have in Wales.”
He pointed to a light rail and coach alternative – costing an estimated £4.5m to set up and £2m a year to run – which would shave some 90 minutes off current north-south trips.
Calling for £4bn “owed” to Wales over HS2, Plaid Cymru’s Siân Gwenllian suggested “not a penny” of the £445m announced in the UK spending review will come to west Wales.
‘Enormous’
Responding to the debate, Ken Skates said the Welsh Government is committed to improving transport links in all parts of Wales.
The transport secretary pointed to £1bn invested in the valleys lines and south Wales metro, as well as the Network North Wales project to which £13m had been committed in May.
Mr Skates told the Senedd: “We’re rolling out £800m of new trains across the whole of Wales. That will deliver an 80% increase in the number of trains being used.”
Turning to the petition, he said the funding required to reopen former lines – as attractive a proposition as it may be – would be enormous.
He accused Plaid Cymru of misinformation on the £4bn “owed” from HS2, arguing it would be more accurate to say Wales should have received £430m by end of this financial year.
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“but balked at the estimated £2bn cost”
The same was just spent on an extra lane for the A465. Just like that project, reconnecting the west coast can be done in stages over two decades.
True, but a big bulk of that funding came from the EU.
London Labour just announced a ten-year infrastructure upgrade plan worth £725bn. A population share of that is worth £36bn to Wales assuming London Labour don’t pull any Tory-style stunts. Spending just £2bn of that to reopen Bangor to Carmarthen is a no-brainer and leaves plenty for “other transport priorities”.
Not a problem. Keep the money we have stolen by the Royal family, and sell our water from our reservoirs at the appropriate rate and it should even pay for some nice hanging baskets for the stations.
Will it pay for hospitals in swathes of Cymru that are forced to use English ones and an airport that has flights to places you want to go. There we go hanging baskets it is.
Now you are being silly. The important point is what flowers go in the flowerpot.
HS2 billions thrown away…take it off Tory pensions…
Another example of ignorance and fantasy in equal measures… “Mr Skates told the Senedd: “We’re rolling out £800m of new trains across the whole of Wales.” Not true: even the bits in rural areas that have trains will still be reliant on cattle trucks from the 1980s. “Mr Waters … That’s £2bn we don’t have to spend on all the other transport priorities we have in Wales.” Err, what £2 billion? [Most of which would be wasted on a narrow strip of South Wales, if it existed – which it doesn’t.] Rather than arguing about angels dancing on the head… Read more »
Id much rather investing in an all wales motorway than rail. Rail services in the north are mostly used by tourists from england. A northern airport would be nice also if we could get air tax parity with scotland and north ireland. We don’t want a hs2 situation with costs spiraling either.
Rail is the only way forward. It will end up being more efficient by replacing road as the main transport form. Just look at Austria and Switzerland, or even Slovenia and Czechia. No excuse to worsen transportation in Wales.
In my LA, at the last census we found that 0.7% of the working population commuted to work using train. And we are one of the better connected LAs in Wales. It’s surprising so many get upset about HS2 funding (when they’re misleading people anyway) yet the data says Welsh people on the whole don’t use trains.
You can’t use the consequences of underinvestment to justify less investment. Did the census ask how many would use trains if they ran from where they are to where they want to be, reliably, regularly and at a great price? Because that’s the data you’d need to make the point you made.
Very poor take. There’s a reason why Welsh people don’t use trains. It’s because there’s not enough of them.
It’s not that. The LA has three major lines, the frequency is 1/2 hourly or hourly. Basically people drive. Orr to a lesser extent take the bus. It’s daft to through billions at trains when people in north wales don’t use the ones we have
I’d love to see a north South railway line but Waters is spot on “That’s £2bn we don’t have to spend on all the other transport priorities we have in Wales”, which would see far better usage and for all Plaid’s rhetoric this scheme would not see the light of day under 10 years of a Plaid government for that exact reason.
A north-south line is a priority and should be the greatest one of all. Furthermore your last point is pure bogus.
Agreed. Simply never going to happen. There are not enough potential users to justify the expenditure anyway. Get real.
Great comment and a realistic one. Trains take money away from where the priority should be, which is buses. so much more important in many of our communities in wales.
This is exactly the argument Whitehall has used for decades to only invest in London.
Designate it as an “England Only” project and see what Westminster has to say about that!
Why is it never mentioned that it would form a direct link between THREE universities?