Rail Electrification . It's not going to happen is it.

Welsh Secretary (For Now) used her Satnav to find Cardiff Bay and and turned up  yesterday to address the Assembly where she in a similar role to a Governor General to a token colonial Parliament explained to a somewhat cynical senedd of the merits of the Queen's  speach talking about infrastructure investment Wales,

Ms Gillan was loudly mocked by Labour AMs (Who used to lower their heads in respect when Peter Hain was Governor General) for referring to “how hard I fought for the electrification of the railway line down to Cardiff”.

She added, to jeers: “I can assure you that I am fighting very hard to make sure that the Prime Minister’s statement that we intend to electrify the Valleys Lines comes to fruition.”

However despite this clear assurance she said "the UK Government must see a business case before it could electrify the main London-Swansea railway line". So don't hold your breath.

The UK Government announced plans to electrify the Great Western line as far as Cardiff last year but the Welsh Government now no longer feeling they can't criticise a Labour Welsh Secretary wants the project to go further west to Swansea and into the Valleys..

Mrs Gillan told AMs she was still continuing to press the case for electrification of the line to Swansea, but warned AMs that “you can't just go ahead on a whim”.


One wonders what's been happening  over the last decades since Electrification of the Railways have taken place .


Has there been case where a line has been electrified and there has been no resultant improvement ?




There have been calls for Electrification before and throughout the last Labour Government wasn't a business case made or was it simply assumed that it was bleeding obvious that electrification that taking the Line to Cardiff and Swansea would benefit both Cities?


Mind you if I had been Cheryl Gillian I had turned on Labour AM's and asked them? 


"Why wasn't electrification carried out when Paul Murphy  and Peter Hain were doing my Job in the 13 years Labour were in power from 1997-2010?"


It seems that two years of the Con/LibDem government has  completely  wiped out the memories of the complete failure of Labour to improve the transport infrastructure  in Wales (and the rest of the UK). 


Thirteenyears of wasted opportunity because Wales was not seen as important when it came to marginal seats as Labour courted "Middle England"


Can any one from Labour truly say that if they had won in 2010 and even if the economy wasn't in meltdown.They would have implemented the sort of electrification of the South Wales they are now calling for. Or would they  simply assume the loyalty of the Welsh People  when it comes to votes and feel there would be no need carry out any promises?