Indeed. Of course, if anything requires a long-term strategy from Government, it is rail infrastructure. The short-term approach to replacing European structural funds that we have seen so far is desperately inadequate for our communities in Wales.
I am glad to hear from Labour about the constitutional arrangements for railways—I hope that that may foretell a fortunate route—but as things stand they are highly dysfunctional. The current arrangements are such that Wales has powers over the operation of trains but not over the track. That does not work; it is highly inefficient, and it has been a major barrier to developing a fully integrated public transport network across communities in Wales.
Unlike in Scotland, nearly all infrastructure planning and the funding of Network Rail in Wales is reserved to the UK Parliament, aside from in relation to certain lines, such as the core valley lines. That makes it very hard to integrate other forms of devolved public transport, such as buses and active transport, with rail.
The Wales Governance Centre calculates that for Wales there is a strong financial case for the full devolution of rail infrastructure along the lines of the Scotland model, and analysis of Network Rail enhancement spending between 2011-12 and 2019-20 indicates that Wales would have benefited from an additional £540 million of spending under a devolved system during that period. Not only would devolution be beneficial on a policy level, but Wales would be better off economically.
I urge the UK Government—again—to redesignate English rail projects such as HS2 as benefiting England only, so that Wales would receive the Barnett consequential funding we have every reason to expect. This is a matter of justice and fairness, not charity. Wales is entitled to receive the same funding for railways as elsewhere in the UK, but it is not. In the longer term, we want to tackle the climate crisis, improve productivity and enhance the wellbeing of people in Wales. Devolution with respect to rail infrastructure to achieve that is essential. Diolch yn fawr.
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