Plaid Cymru demands talks with UK government to address 'unfair' HS2 rail funding

Plaid Cymru's new transport minister has asked for talks with the UK government to demand better rail funding for Wales.

Mark Hooper said successive UK governments had failed to address a "long-standing symbol of unfair rail funding" over High Speed 2, which is classed as an England and Wales project. Hooper said £445m announced for new stations last year "falls far short" and called for a "more ambitious" level of funding.

A Labour source said the UK government plans to "right the wrongs of historic underinvestment".

Plaid Cymru had promised at the May election to push for greater funding and powers from Westminster.

While a small number of lines in the south Wales valleys are maintained by the Welsh government, most rail infrastructure is the responsibility of the UK government.

Previous Welsh governments have long complained that Wales' rail network has suffered from under investment.

The large sums of money spent on HS2 ramped up those grievances. It was recently announced that the scheme could cost up to £102.7bn and may not open until 2039.

England-only schemes generate a consequential sum of money for Welsh budgets, but because HS2 was classed as an England and Wales project that has not happened, unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Westminster UK government has argued it is addressing underinvestment in rail, announcing £445m for new rail stations and other projects a year ago.

Before the election Sir Keir Starmer committed to a plan of work worth £14bn over 15 years, although the vast bulk of the money to build the proposed 43 stations has not been identified.

Only the £445m has been formally committed, with cash confirmed for seven stations.

In a letter to Alexander, Hooper wrote: "For Wales, HS2 is also a long-standing symbol of unfair rail funding that successive UK governments have failed to address."

While he welcomed the endorsement of the £14bn Transport for Wales rail plan, the deputy transport minister said the funding announced last year "falls far short of addressing the historic under-investment. I am keen that our officials work together on a far more ambitious pipeline of investment ahead of the next spending review," he added. The next spending review is expected in 2027.

Hooper said the Welsh government "wants to negotiate fairer rail funding for Wales", along with a pathway to full devolution.

Plaid wants control over Wales' railways to be fully in the hands of the Welsh government.

A Labour source said: "After avoiding the topic during the Senedd election, it is a positive step forward that Plaid have finally thrown their support behind the up to £14bn plan for rail agreed by the UK Labour government and the previous Welsh Labour government."

"Worth far more than what Welsh government would have received had HS2, or any other rail project been devolved, this investment will bring new stations and better services to people across Wales and right the wrongs of historic underinvestment by successive Tory governments in Westminster."

Ambulance worker rearrested after six people die

An ambulance worker released on bail in connection with the deaths of six adults has been arrested on suspicion of two further offences, police say.

The 35-year-old man, from west Wiltshire, is facing two further counts of wilful neglect by a care worker. He was previously arrested in September on suspicion of six counts of gross negligence manslaughter and four counts of ill-treatment or wilful neglect by a care worker. He remains on conditional bail.

A 60-year-old woman who was previously arrested in connection with the same investigation remains on conditional bail. Both individuals were previously employed by the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT).

The pair were arrested in connection with Operation Willow, a major investigation into the death of several adults within a healthcare setting in the Wiltshire area. It has been ongoing since 2023 following concerns raised to Wiltshire Police. They were immediately suspended from duty pending the outcome of the investigation and are no longer employed by the trust.

A spokesperson for the SWASFT said: "As soon as the trust became aware of any concerns, we immediately launched an internal investigation which resulted in a prompt police referral, and we continue to work closely with Wiltshire Police as part of their ongoing investigation. We would like to reassure communities that there is no on-going risk to patients. Please continue to call 999 in a life-threatening emergency. Due to the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this stage."

Hi Grahame
Please see below, as requested

That's what I thought too - odd for a zombie franchise to be rocking the boat in this way, unless as you say it's at the bidding of another organisation (..........and if senior people at GWR are hoping for a nice, taxpayer funded job going forwards with GBR, they are probably quite biddable to the right people just now!)

Between Cardiff Central and Bristol Temple Meads they will call at Newport, Severn Tunnel Junction, Filton Abbey Wood, and Stapleton Road.

One train each way on weekdays and Saturday will additionally call at Bristol Parkway.

West of Cardiff the calling pattern will vary but will typically include Carmarthen, Pembrey and Burry Port, Llanelli, Gowerton, Swansea, Neath, Port Talbot Parkway, and Bridgend with most services originating from, or extending to, Fishguard Harbour or Milford Haven calling at all stations.

The route was first approved by the rail regulator in 2022 after a drawn-out battle with Great Western Railway, which operates its own south Wales to London Paddington services and had opposed the application. The original proposals were submitted by Grand Union Trains, which secured regulatory approval before selling its rights to the route to FirstGroup in 2024.

Lumo – FirstGroup’s open access train brand – will now operate the service, running five return journeys a day between Carmarthen and London Paddington. The service will call at Llanelli, Gowerton, Cardiff, Newport, Severn Tunnel Junction and Bristol Parkway.

13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57
14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01
15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:06


16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:06 will be cancelled.
This is due to a broken down train.

Given that GWR will be back in public ownership later this year, it seems odd that they protested, other than under the instruction of someone senior at the DfT or GBR who didn't want to be seen directly interfering. So perhaps there's some kind of English/Welsh railway turf war going on?

Oops - I missed picking that request up.  Please send me an image of the page you get - I THINK I know what the issue might be, but want to check that I address the right question.

First thought - open access license applications are supposed not to be primarily abstractive.  In other words to develop new markets.

   And those new markets in many cases can help the older markets too.  Not Open Access, but the re-instated services from Oxford to Swindon and the west will abstract traffic from Oxford to Didcot locals and from trains heading west that call at Didcot. 

Same today - perhaps the 2 are related?

...and not only that, the 6:46 Trowbridge-Bristol service was 4 carriages instead of the usual 2. Happy days

I have had an ongoing problem now, that appears on both my work laptops and my mobile phone - so different servers and web browsers.

When I open this site, I always click the "Update topics" and "Recent unread topics" hyperlinks to show me the updated posts etc.

But after I open the 4th / 5th page I get a holding warning page telling me I am unable to post or view anymore.
I then get this page on anything I view, and have  to leave the site for about an hour before I can try again.

I wasn't sure if this was something that can be looked into please?
It means that if I find a thread that I want to reply to, I get stopped by this contact page

Grateful for any assistance or advice

The Department for Transport has always instructed franchised train operators to object to new services, or service extensions, by non-franchised operators - because they (in theory) reduce the amount of money flowing back to DfT. Remember way way back when Virgin's objections, at the behest of DfT, stopped Wrexham & Shropshire calling at Birmingham New Street.

Just in case anyone else hadn't noticed - the Uber promotion where you got 5% back on train tickets has recently been reduced to 3% Still worth having though.

This thread, plus thoughts of the long wave transmission from Droitwich finishing at the the end of this month, combined to remind me of some pioneering experiments with telephone communication from a train - this was in 1911 and involved the Stratford on Avon and Midland Junction Railway no less.

Mark


https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/article/im-train-wireless-messages-trains-1911-12