The UK Government has recognised Wales has been “hard done by” and will provide new funding for rail, the Welsh First Minister said. Eluned Morgan announced that Wales will get extra cash to fund rail projects after UK ministers admitted Welsh railways were underfunded.
Politicians in Wales have complained that the country has lost out over the HS2 project, for which Wales received no additional funding. Baroness Morgan declined to say how much money the country will get but said she hopes it will be “significant”.
In a letter to the Welsh Government, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander admitted Wales has had “low levels of enhancement spending in recent years”. HS2 has caused tensions in Wales since it was first announced, with the scheme having been designated an England and Wales project despite no track being laid in the latter country.
If it had been labelled an England-only project, Wales would benefit from additional funding, which Plaid Cymru estimates to be worth around £4 billion. Speaking on BBC Radio Wales on Wednesday, Baroness Morgan, the Labour leader of the Welsh Government, said: “For the first time, the UK Government has recognised that we have been underfunded.
“(We’ve had) a letter from Heidi Alexander saying, ‘OK, something isn’t right here’. “Now there is a discussion about what we are going to do about it, ‘where are your projects so we can invest’.”. She said the funding was likely to come in the form of new stations and rail infrastructure, but did not specify where.
