The Transport Secretary was speaking at an event to mark the £140m Cardiff Central redevelopment announcement
UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was at Cardiff Central for the announcement(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)
Six months on from the major announcement that the UK Government would be investing £445m in Welsh rail after decades of underfunding, the UK Transport Secretary has given an update on when people in Wales will know where and when that money will be spent.
Speaking at an event to celebrate the announcement that Cardiff Central station would be undergoing a £140m redevelopment, UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander admitted that for too long the needs of Welsh rail passengers had been “overlooked”.
On Thursday, it was announced that huge changes to Cardiff Central railway station had been approved. The £140m Transport for Wales development will not change the number of platforms at the station but will aim to improve reliability, capacity, and make movement and accessibility around the station better.
The development, which is set to be completed in 2028, will see improved waiting areas, new shops, cycle storage, and an expansion of the gates into the station. For the biggest stories in Wales first, sign up to our daily newsletter here.
In June, the UK Government announced £445m of rail funding for Wales but failed to deliver any more detail about how and when it would be spent.
The announcement was made following a row over the lack of money coming into Wales as a consequence of major rail projects in England, including the £60bn HS2 project, and the £6bn East West Cambridge to Oxford line.
The package, set to address decades of historic underfunding of Welsh rail, outlined that it would be invested in north and south Wales and on fixed level crossings, building new stations, and upgrading existing lines.
However, questions have remained as to where exactly that money will be spent.
UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said Welsh communities had waited “far too long” for decent transport links(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)
Ms Alexander said £78m of that proposed £445m would be spent on the “utterly transformative” Cardiff Central development, alongside funding from Cardiff Capital Region and the Welsh Government.
She added that people could expect to find out more about where else that money would be spent in the new year, following discussions with the Wales Rail Board.
She said: “I’m going to be led by the views of the Wales Rail Board about how we best use the nearly half a billion pounds worth of funding that the UK Government allocated at the spending review for enhancing the rail network.
“What I’m waiting for is a little bit more information back from the Wales Rail Board and then I will have some discussions with Ken Skates about what he thinks the priorities should be for investment.”
When asked how the rest of Wales might benefit from that money, she said: “When I speak to colleagues in north Wales they talk to me about the importance of improving services on the north Wales mainline, improving services between Wrexham and Liverpool.
“At the announcement we made at the spending review we highlighted some of the work at Padeswood sidings which could unlock capacity and the proposals for the Burns stations, some of which are in south Wales.” You can find out more about the Burns stations here.
She added: “We need to understand exactly where the priorities are for investment and that’s why I want to work in partnership with the Wales Rail Board, and with Ken, and make sure we are progressing the schemes that are going to have the biggest impacts as soon as possible.”
Welsh Transport Secretary Ken Skates said Cardiff Central would become an “iconic” station(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)
Ken Skates clarified that the £445m would be spent in the next three years after confusion following the initial announcement that it would be spent over a 10-year period, which would have left Wales worse off than it had been under the Tories.
He said: “We’re discussing the timeframe and the priorities today, we’re determined to make sure that we spend every penny of that in this spending period.
“We have got the projects in south Wales and north Wales and we have the money to make huge progress on them. Also, with the money that has been allocated, we are able to develop more projects that we can draw down funding for in the next spending round.”
UK Secretary of State for Wales, Jo Stevens, has previously said that rail was her number one priority for Wales, when asked she said she was absolutely satisfied by what she’d seen so far, and that she was “delighted” to be at Cardiff Central welcoming the new development.
She added that the report on where the rest of the money would be allocated would come “early next year”. She continued: “So we will have a list of what’s going to happen and a list about what’s going to happen when.”