‘People in Wales refuse to be treated as second-class passengers any longer’ – Plaid Cymru

Ann Davies MP to demand full devolution of rail in meeting with UK Government

Today (Tuesday 19 May) Plaid Cymru’s Transport Spokesperson, Ann Davies MP, said that HS2 has been “shambolic from the outset” as Heidi Alexander, the UK Government’s Transport Secretary gave an update on HS2.

The HS2 project is now expected to be delayed until beyond the mid-2030s and the budget could surge to more than £100bn.

HS2 is classified as an ‘England and Wales’ project, despite not a single inch of track being in Wales. Plaid Cymru says that Wales is already owed £4 billion from HS2 and has called for the reclassification of the project as ‘England-only’ so that Wales can be given the money it is owed.

The party’s Transport Spokesperson, Ann Davies MP has said that the people of Wales refuse to be treated as second-class passengers any longer’.

Ms Davies is set to meet with Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Transport, Keir Mather later this afternoon to discuss her amendment to the Railways Bill that calls for the full devolution of rail to Wales, in line with Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Ann Davies MP also said that her party has a renewed mandate from the people of Wales to devolve rail to Wales after having elected a Plaid Cymru Welsh Government earlier this month which was a core manifesto ask.

Plaid Cymru’s Transport Spokesperson, Ann Davies MP said:

“HS2 has been shambolic from the outset. People are right to be angry at the severe lack of leadership and planning that has led us to this point - from repeated delays and scaling back of plans to its spiralling costs. The UK Government’s statement today is an admission that it has failed to get to grips with the failures inherited from the previous Conservative Government since taking office in 2024.

“But in Wales, we have an additional reason to be angry. HS2, a rail line connecting London and Birmingham, continues to be wrongly classified as an ‘England and Wales’ project. The railway is nowhere near Wales and will bring no meaningful benefit to our communities, yet people in Wales are still expected to help pay for it.

“Wales is already owed around £4 billion as a result of HS2 being misclassified, but if the project’s costs rise beyond £100 billion as expected, the scale of that injustice will only grow. Every increase in HS2 spending further skews transport funding away from Wales, reducing the share we receive across the wider UK Transport Department budget and baking the underfunding of Welsh rail infrastructure into future spending decisions.

“The people of Wales refuse to be treated as second-class passengers any longer. That is why Plaid Cymru has consistently called for HS2 to be reclassified, so Wales receives the fair share of funding we are owed to from this England-only project. We have also long argued that powers over rail infrastructure should be devolved to Wales, so that we can properly invest in our own transport network and ensure communities across the country benefit from reliable, modern public transport.

“I will be meeting with Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Transport, Keir Mather, this afternoon where I will push for the funding and powers that Wales is owed, because Plaid Cymru has a renewed mandate from the people of Wales to do so.”

https://www.partyof.wales/hs2_update