Welsh Labour MPs urged to press for rail funding justice for Wales

Martin Shipton

A former Welsh Labour MP has urged his ex-colleagues in the Commons to stand up for Wales by demanding extra funds for rail infrastructure following news that the cost of the planned HS2 route in England is spiralling.

Successive Conservative and Labour governments have insisted on classifying HS2 as an England and Wales project, despite not a metre of the planned route passing through Wales.

As a result of the decision, Wales is in line to lose out on billions of pounds in “Barnett consequential” funding that it would have been entitled to if HS2 had been designated an England-only route.

Geraint Davies, the MP for Swansea West from 2010 to 2024, said: “Wales needs its £5bn share of HS2 from Andy Burnham and Welsh MPs should be asking for the pledge so the scheme helps Wales as well as Manchester and London if he becomes PM.

“The HS2 railway will cost over £100bn and take 13 years for the first London to Birmingham trains, so let’s see investment in Wales in the meantime to catch up our economic productivity and boost our investment attractiveness.

“Wales has endured decades of getting 1.5% of UK rail investment for 5% of the population, resulting in lower economic growth and wages.

“When Andy Burnham asks Welsh MPs to pledge their support they should be bidding for investment in Wales not just for a place in his team. It’s time for change, not just loose change for Wales.”

The overwhelming majority of MPs elected from Wales – 27 out of 32 – are Welsh Labour.

We asked Welsh Labour to provide us with a statement, preferably from the party’s deputy leader Carolyn Harris, the MP for Swansea West, but we received no response.

Earlier this week UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the HS2 high-speed railway would now cost up to £102.7bn and trains will not start running between London and Birmingham until as late as 2039 – £70bn more and 13 years later than originally promised.

The figure is the first official estimate of HS2’s budget in 2026 prices. Alexander said the total cost would range between £87.7bn and £102.7bn, with only a third of the rise resulting from inflation.

Trains between Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham Curzon Street will now start running in 2039, with the full railway running from London Euston to join the west coast mainline in Staffordshire completed between 2040 and 2043.

‘Credible estimates’

Alexander said the forecasts were “built on solid foundations with credible estimates as ranges”, after a 15-month review conducted by HS2 Ltd’s chief executive, Mark Wild, on taking up the post.

She blamed the previous Conservative government for standing by and watching “the world’s most expensive slow-motion car crash”, saying that Labour had inherited a “litany of failure”.

While inflation played a part, Alexander said two-thirds of the budget increase was due to works being missed from the scope of the original plans, underestimates and inefficient delivery.

She added: “I can confirm that the previous government spent most of HS2’s budget without laying a single mile of track. That is the shocking legacy … If it seems like an obscene increase in times and costs, that is because it is. And if it seems like I’m angry, I am.”

She said the government had considered cancelling the entire project, but that it could cost almost as much to cancel the line as finish it.

However, she said trains would be operated at lower speeds, to save about £2.5bn, reducing the top speed from about 225mph to about nearly 200mph, in line with most international standards.

Alexander said Wild and HS2 Ltd’s chair, Mike Brown, “have an almost impossible task on their hands” to turn the project around, but would be managing contracts properly with improved oversight.

Spending on HS2 is guaranteed until 2029-30 under the spending review.