My hon. Friend is chair of the APPG for the Western Gateway, which is why she is cheering. The upgrade of the south Wales main line should include the new Burns stations in south-east Wales, Cardiff Parkway and the electrification of the Swansea and Vale of Glamorgan lines—and of Filton Bank to Bristol Temple Meads. The enhancement schemes should also include the upgrade of the Borderlands line to connect Wrexham and north-east Wales to Liverpool and Merseyside, using Merseyrail’s new battery-powered Stadler 777s; capacity enhancements at Chester and on the north Wales main line; a first phase of Swansea bay metro to help to deliver an economic boost to the region; and immediate action, including development funding via Network Rail this year, to help to address network capacity issues at Cardiff West junction. Resolution of those issues would improve the operational capacity and efficiency of the entire core valley lines network—a requirement that was omitted from Network Rail and the Department for Transport’s Cardiff area signalling renewal project in 2012 to 2015. That enhancement could be most efficiently combined with planned Network Rail renewal works.
Thank you for your patience, Mrs Cummins. I will finish with some good news—I always try to end on a happy note. This morning the global centre of rail excellence announced that it has signed heads of terms for Transport for Wales to become a major commercial premium client. That secures a long-term partnership for Transport for Wales, so that it can use all the world-class facilities at the global centre of rail excellence. The announcement follows the recent deal with Hitachi, which will also be using the premium-quality testing, product approval, training, innovation, research and development and storage facilities at the global centre of rail excellence. Those agreements indicate the global centre’s commercial strength, and are great news for Neath, Wales and the UK.
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