Academic appalled by lack of spending
AN ACADEMIC who has quantified the under-investment in the Welsh rail network by the UK Government says his conclusions have changed his politics and he is moving towards backing Welsh independence.
Professor Mark Barry, of Cardiff University, estimates that if Wales were receiving its fair share of rail investment over the three decades from 2000-30, it would benefit from an extra £4bn of funding.
Writing on Twitter, he said: “I can find around £600m investment in Wales against at least £100bn across the UK if one includes HS2.
“This is really changing my politics and frankly I am flabbergasted that anyone can defend the record of Westminster and UK governments in this regard.
“I have no choice but to become #Indycurious @ YesCymru.
“Given this, one can be pretty sure that only a very small portion of the UK’s now £2tn+ national debt was ever used to invest in the economic infrastructure of Wales.
“And did you know that to progress the South Wales Metro the Department for Transport held the Welsh Government hostage and with Network Rail made the Welsh Government ‘pay’ around £400m for the core valley lines that were already in public ownership in Wales? #angry just doesn’t do it! The current set-up is just not working for Wales.”
Detailing his calculations on a blog post, Prof Barry wrote that rail enhancements across the UK amounted to £4.5bn between 2004-09, £12bn from 2009-14, £11bn from 2014-19 and are projected to be £10bn from 2019-24.
Conservative estimates of likely spending onwards to 2030 take the total to £100bn.
By contrast, the amounts committed to Wales consist of £190m for the South Wales Metro, £60m for the development of Cardiff Central station, £300m on electrification of the main Great Western main line in Wales and smaller contributions towards new and enhanced stations totalling around £50m.
Prof Barry said: “That’s not even 1% of the UK total.”