The government is still deciding which trains it will use to replace existing carriages on the London to Swansea line The UK government has been accused of “leaving Wales behind” after stalling plans to electrify the rail line between London and Swansea.
Despite a £8bn investment into the railways, the electrification of the Great Western Main Line is on hold.
The Department for Transport said it needs to decide whether to replace the intercity fleet with electric trains, or electric-diesel hybrids beforehand.
Shadow Welsh Secretary Peter Hain criticised the decision.
The Department for Transport said it will make a further statement in the New Year after it considers the “extent of electrification on the Great Western route”.
Peter Hain, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Wales said: “Yet again this government is leaving Wales behind.
“The London-south Wales electrification has been kicked into the long grass – they claim it is still an “aspiration” but have effectively ruled it out for decades.
“The Secretary of State for Wales (Cheryl Gillan) should have been leading the campaign for electrification to Swansea.
“The London-south Wales electrification has been kicked into the long grass – they claim it is still an “aspiration” but have effectively ruled it out for decades”
Peter Hain Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Wales
“Her inaction on our part, and the government’s decision, shows they just don’t care about jobs and prosperity in Wales.”
Ms Gillan said she remained fully supportive of the electrification project and hoped to work with the Welsh Assembly Government on the business case.
She said: “No final decision has yet been taken and I will continue to robustly argue the case with the secretary of state for transport and cabinet colleagues.
“This is not a simple process and a range of factors must be considered before any decision can be made.
“We should not forget that the last government failed to electrify a single centimetre of track in Wales during their 13 years in office.
“This government is far more responsible when it comes to public money and it is right that we examine in fine detail projects such as electrification to Swansea.”
The overall investment package will increase capacity on the UK’s railways by 17%, delivering more than 2,100 new rail carriages by May 2019 in a bid to tackle overcrowding on the busiest services.
But questions are being asked about why three transport schemes related to the London and Swansea line have been boosted while the electrification has been stalled.
Some 400 of the new carriages are for Crossrail (the new line being built east-west across London), 800 for Thameslink (the north-south link across London) and 650 will be given to different franchises around the country.
Those 650 carriages will be used to serve commuters travelling into the big cities.
But the UK government cannot say precisely which franchises will get what.
“The decision to delay the electrification of the London to Swansea line is very strange.
When the DfT only announces three of four inter-related schemes, it becomes a little worrying about what they are going to say later on.
Phil Hammond has a difficult decision to make but he has to decide which of the two new kinds of train he is going to buy and how far west the link will go.
From our point of view in Wales there is very little option and the undoubtedly the cheapest option is to electrify the service all the way to Swansea in one project rather than several.
The Thameslink project is also going to go ahead in full. This will eventually double capacity on the route from Brighton to Bedford, allowing up to 24 trains an hour and lines in the north west – from Manchester to Liverpool and Manchester to Blackpool – are going to be electrified.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said it was a “rolling programme” but said passengers would start to see the benefits “within the next few months”.
Passengers face an average fare rise of 6.2% in the new year, with some commuters seeing their tickets go up by as much as 12.8%.
The UK government says these fare rises are necessary to safeguard the investment that has just been announced.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.