Welsh Government accused of rail devolution U-turn
The Welsh Government has been accused of reversing its position on rail devolution after a senior Labour minister said she was “not sure” Wales wants rail powers devolved from Westminster.
Julie James, the Welsh Government’s Minister for Delivery, made the comments during an interview with BBC Wales, appearing to step back from Labour’s long-standing position in Wales that full rail devolution is necessary to address chronic underfunding.
“I’m not sure we’re wanting the devolution of it,” she said.
“Really what we want is the funding formulas to be right and the organisation of it to be right so that we have a loud voice for Wales in what is done in Wales and actually we have a very good working relationship with the UK government about which railway stations will be invested in.
“I’m not a separatist politician at all. I want to work inside the UK infrastructure. It’s very important to me that the Great Western Railway line goes all the way to London seamlessly, you know, I don’t want it to only work to the border.
“If you did devolve the whole of rail infrastructure to Wales, you’d want to be really certain that all the money that you needed for that came with, I’d be very concerned whether that would happen as a one off event.”
The Welsh Government has previously described rail devolution as a “process rather than an event”, but Julie James’s remarks have intensified claims that Labour is retreating from the principle altogether.
The minister’s comments prompted an immediate backlash from Plaid Cymru, which accused the Welsh Government of abandoning its previous commitment to rail devolution just as Westminster moves to devolve rail powers to mayoral authorities in England.
‘Incredible’
Plaid Cymru’s transport spokesperson, Peredur Owen-Griffiths, said: “This is an incredible admission from the Minister for Delivery that Labour in Wales don’t in fact want to see rail devolved to Wales after all.
“Westminster never have, and never will treat us fairly – our rail infrastructure has suffered from decades of neglect, and successive UK Governments have failed to deliver the fair funding Wales needs to improve its transport network.
“There’d be no U-turns with a Plaid Cymru government – along with keeping up the fight to demand the HS2 billions we’re owed, we’ll keep making the case that Wales should have full powers over its rail.”
Rail funding has long been a contentious issue in Wales, particularly since HS2 was designated an “England and Wales” project, a decision Plaid Cymru argues has deprived Wales of up to £4 billion in consequential funding.
Underfunded
While the UK Government has announced hundreds of millions of pounds for rail investment in Wales, including £300 million for new stations around Cardiff and Newport and £48 million for the South Wales Metro, critics argue this still leaves Wales significantly underfunded compared with England.
The new controversy comes as Westminster presses ahead with plans to devolve rail powers to mayoral regions in England under proposed reforms linked to Great British Railways, while stopping short of offering Wales equivalent statutory control.
The UK Government says it’s new Railways Bill would require a memorandum of understanding between the Secretary of State and Welsh ministers, setting shared objectives for the rail network in Wales and the Borders.
It said the legislation, which could come into force next summer, would not remove any existing powers from the Welsh Government but would formalise joint working on rail planning and investment.
The Department for Transport says the changes will give Welsh ministers greater influence over long-term rail strategy while preserving the benefits of an integrated Great Britain-wide network.
Both Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Liberal Democrats have said they cannot support the Bill, arguing it entrenches Wales’s lack of control over its rail infrastructure.
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These Labour in Wales politicians are allergic to responsibility. Labour UK is withholding rail investment money, declaring funding for projects as “England and Wales” so they can avoid investing it in Wales and handing fractions, contrary to the funding arrangements they have setup an agreed to under their idealistic one United Kingdom view.
Labour in Wales are happy with this arrangement, not really justifying their jobs or their true allegiance.
Plaid should table an amendment to UKIMA to make it an offence for anyone in central government to wilfully disadvantage any UK region or nation, punishable by three months in the Tower.
Naive comments from Julie James. Can she please be replaced by someone who is more savvy?
As long as the south-east gets theirs they’re cool with Wasteminster and the rest of us, bar Wrexham Junction, can go hang…
Welsh Labour are tired and on the ropes, not long to go…
Another volte facé from Unionist labours Welsh branch! Why are we not surprised?
What a bizarre statement.
There is no issue of ‘seemlessness’ between cross border rail services. Every country in Europe has them, including England. Incoming trains on Eurostar are designated and regulated as ‘French’ and outgoing trains are designated and regulated as ‘English’ all the way to Paris. Netherlands actually own and operate tracks and stations over the border in Germany too, and visa versa.
Julie James MS bats for England and is issuing soundbite phantoms to Wales as an excuse to rob Wales of rail investment.
Groundhog Day. Despite all the windbaggery about HS2 etc. politicians in Cardiff Bay do not want to take responsibility as was the case 20 years ago. Let’s see if Plaid are really any different or whether they want the benefits without the risk too.
If they’re not going to push to get control they need to push for better from Whitehall. Where’s the commitment to upgrade all mainlines in Wales to UK norms – electrify to Swansea and Holyhead, modernise signalling to boost capacity and uprate line speeds.
Can Welsh Labour speak for Wales, just once? Shout, scream, throw toys out of prams, have a right old tantrum but, just once, speak as if you want the best for Wales and are angry at how we are constantly treated.
So Scotland, Northern Ireland, and even English regional mayors either already control, or are about to control, rail infrastructure, but when Wales asks for the same, it’s suddenly labelled “separatism”? Where is the logic in this double standard? And what evidence is there that rail devolution is somehow unwanted in Wales? What this really looks like is Welsh Labour retreating from a long-held position at precisely the moment they are about to lose control in Cardiff Bay. When Labour was in opposition, it was vocal about Wales being short-changed on rail funding. Now that they are in power in London,… Read more »
James’ big gaffe is to let slip that Labour in Wales are just a bunch of feeble politicians who don’t like responsibility, enjoy ducking issues and let someone else, ideally remote, carry the can. 2026 is a good time to the lot of them.
In an attempt to stitch up Labour David TC Davies posted this summary of Westminster’s investment in Welsh railways since 2001.
And it’s absolutely shocking because apart from electrifying to Cardiff, chipping a bit in for the Cardiff metro (just because the EU was) and some cash towards upgrading Cardiff Central they’ve invested nothing in 23 years.
Maybe this is a conspiratorial view on my part, but I’m starting to think Labour want to lose Wales at this point… Hell, I think they secretly want Reform to win! If Farage’s mob take hold of the Senedd, they can use that to their advantage come the Westminster elections in 2029… They’ll have a solid three years to use Wales as a political football, highlighting how much of a rotten job Reform are doing in Cardiff and using some kind of “You don’t want that for the rest of the country, do you?” rhetoric, hoping that it will pan… Read more »
When the leader of a country trying for independence from an invading country is also a member of the house of Lords in the invading country and no-one screams conflict of interest something is wrong somewhere. And Wales wonders why nothing has been achieved over the last 26 years with members of the senedd making statements like that of ms james, and this group of officials wants an above inflation pay rise and for us the voters to pay for childcare costs for senedd members when is this madness going to stop and Wales can get some real politicians.