Rail injustice runs deeper than HS2. Wales has been robbed of billions over decades

In the embers of the General Election campaign last year lie many a broken promise.

Few have proved to be more emblematic of Labour’s betrayal than its U-turn on HS2, the high-speed railway designated an ‘England and Wales’ project despite not an inch of track being in Wales.

The result? Scotland and Northern Ireland are compensated for it, Wales isn’t and so misses out on billions of pounds of rail investment.

Make no mistake, the Tories and Labour are as guilty as each other. The Tories are crying foul despite working against the Welsh national interest when in government at Westminster and now Labour are reneging on commitments made when they were in opposition.

Plaid Cymru spotted this injustice years ago, and we persuaded others to back our campaign to put it right. The Labour Secretary of State for Wales herself became a cheerleader for giving Wales HS2 justice. But post-election, the priority switched to backing Keir Starmer rather than doing what’s right for Wales.

Meanwhile, Labour in Wales have lost their backbone, talking a good game one minute but voting with the party whip the next.

What’s happened to the ‘partnership in power’ that Labour so often boast about? A partnership which seems more interested in staying the ‘power’ than doing what’s right for Wales, including addressing the great train robbery and its effect on our country.

But rail injustice in Wales runs much deeper than just HS2, and this week, Plaid Cymru held a debate in the Senedd on the historic underfunding of Welsh railways.

From HS2, all the way back to Beeching’s cuts back in the 1960, successive UK governments, both red and blue, have led Wales down a long track of financial neglect, leaving us billions of pounds worse off.

Despite Wales having 11% of the UK rail network, we’ve historically received just over 1% of rail enhancement investment. How can that be right? Between 2019 and 2029, Wales will have faced a shortfall of at least £2.4bn and perhaps as much as £5.1bn in rail funding.

Just imagine the difference this investment could make to connect Wales.

Our rail infrastructure is substandard. It took until well into the 21^st century to have a single mile of electrified track in Wales. North-south services are inordinately long, and the network Wales-wide has obvious gaps. Bus routes have been cut in our communities. And as well as vital social and community links being weak or missing altogether, the result is a struggling economy.

WalesOnline's campaign for fair funding

Keir Starmer has a historic chance this year to end decades of second-class treatment of the Welsh rail network. Far less money is spent per person on rail in Wales compared to England and that has left us with far less electrified track and without the capacity to build a transport network fit for the nation's needs.

This spring Mr Starmer's government is conducting a multi-year spending review which gives him the opportunity to reset the amount of funding allocated to the rail network in Wales. Later on in the year, he's planning a major bit of rail legislation that will be a once-in-a-generation chance to put in place a mechanism to guarantee fairness in perpetuity. Read more about this here.

You can help put pressure on him to do use this historic opportunity by signing WalesOnline's petition on the UK government website calling for fair rail funding for Wales. Very simply, we want people in England and Wales to be treated the same when it comes to rail.

There are arguments about how this should be done but widespread agreement that things must change.

One academic told WalesOnline the Wales always comes at the bottom of the pile and will continue to unless there is full devolution. Another told us there was no appetite in either Cardiff Bay or Westminster for devolution and this lack of ambition was repeating the biggest mistake the Welsh Government had ever made.

There are fears that unless there is full devolution, Wales will suffer every time the UK government cuts spending but protects major projects in England, as is happening right now.

However the Welsh Government believes fair funding can be delivered without full devolution, which is does not want. And the head of a passenger body told us he didn't care who got the money as long as they did a good job with it, adding more cash could make a huge difference.

Our debate was an opportunity for the Senedd as a whole, including the Welsh Labour Government, to send a clear message to Westminster that we’ve had enough of second-class infrastructure at the same time that the southeast of England is being promised significant new investment.

Plaid Cymru called for the reversal of the underfunding of Wales’ railways which is robbing our communities of a purposeful public transport system.

We called for up-to-date figures on how much exactly Wales is losing out.

And we called again for Wales’ missing billions from HS2.

Every single time, Labour chose to follow the party whip and vote against common sense calls for fair railway funding for Wales. Yet again, Labour put party over country to spare Starmer’s blushes rather than standing up for Wales.

This debate wasn’t about our past, it was about our future – and the ability to invest in a public transport system which connects our communities and improves our economy.

If we do not act now, Wales will continue to miss out on critical future investment, leaving our transport network in disrepair while billions are poured into infrastructure elsewhere.

We must have ambition for our rail infrastructure - electrification, better connectivity, a wider, more modern and more efficient transport network that supports our economy, our communities, and our future generations.

After all, good connectivity is key to creating prosperity. Rail investment sparks job creation, boosts productivity, attracts investments by expanding labour markets and cutting transportation costs. Better rail and bus links don’t just follow economic prosperity, they actively create it.

That is the ambition Plaid Cymru has for Wales – and that is what we’re currently being denied.

After almost 26 years in power, Labour have been given ample opportunity to deliver for Wales.

They even promised Wales would be better off with two Labour governments in Westminster and Cardiff – but this week’s Senedd vote is another reminder that this was nothing more than empty rhetoric from a tired Labour party in Wales.

At the very least, Wales deserves a government that will always fight its corner and stand up to Westminster.

That is what Plaid Cymru offers to the people of Wales.