North Wales rail electrification: ‘Where Labour and Tories align to keep Wales in the slow lane’

Plaid Cymru Ynys Môn candidate calls on Labour and Tories to commit to funding North Wales Main Line electrification in full.

The refusal to deny Wales the billions it is owed from England’s High Speed 2 rail link is ‘the most egregious example of the Tories and Labour colluding to keep Wales in the slow lane’, Plaid Cymru’s General Election candidate for Ynys Môn, Llinos Medi has today (Friday 24 May) said.

Llinos Medi argued that the refusal of the current Conservative UK government to give Wales its £4 billion share of the HS2 project, and Labour’s silent complicity “speaks volumes about the Westminster parties’ priorities.”

The Plaid Cymru candidate for Ynys Môn also argued that the electrification of the North Wales Main Line was “long overdue” and vowed that, if elected, she would press the UK Government to “fully fund” the line beyond the current insufficient pledge of £1 billion. It is estimated that the true cost is closer to £1.5 billion given that construction costs have risen since the initial estimate was made in 2015.

Plaid Cymru Westminster candidate for Ynys Môn, Llinos Medi said:

“The refusal to provide Wales the billions we are owed from England’s High Speed rail link is the most egregious example of the Tories and Labour colluding to keep Wales in the slow lane. 

“Wales’s rail network is creaking at the seams yet successive Tory and Labour governments in Westminster have failed to deliver the investment we need to create a public transport system fit for the 21st century.

“By denying Wales billions of HS2 consequentials owed to us, the Tories are forcing Welsh taxpayers to foot the bill for a rail link where not a single metre of track will be built here.

“Keir Starmer’s silence on the matter only exposes Labour’s complicity and shows that his party’s real priorities lie in Westminster, not Wales.

“North Wales has also been waiting for the long overdue electrification of the Main Line. The UK Government’s announcement of £1 billion was poorly thought out given it was based on estimates made nearly a decade ago. Rising costs means that this money is around a third of the way short of the full funding which is actually required. Here we have yet more evidence of Wales being short changed by Westminster.

“If elected as MP for Ynys Môn, I would be fighting week in, week out to ensure that the next UK Government, whether red or blue, commits to funding the North Wales Main Line electrification in full.

“This is a clear demonstration of Plaid Cymru’s commitment to serve the whole of Wales, and nothing less than the people of Ynys Môn and the wider north deserve.”