Rail incompetence must not hit Swansea electrification, says MP

Geraint Davies says Swansea should not pay the price for poor planning

"Incompetence" in managing rail improvements must not threaten electrification of the Swansea-to-London main line, an MP has warned.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has blamed the UK government for huge extra costs and lengthy delays to modernising the Great Western rail network.

Swansea West MP Geraint Davies said ministers should honour a pledge to electrify to Swansea, despite mistakes.

On Tuesday, Network Rail said that was planned to be completed by 2024.

But Wales route managing director Andy Thomas said dates and costs were "to be confirmed".

UK ministers also said electric trains were due to start running between Cardiff and London in 2019, despite the deferring of work on other lines.

The NAO report, published on Wednesday, said the estimated cost of the Great Western network improvements had increased by £2.1bn to £5.6bn since 2013.

Delays had added between 18 and 36 months to the project's timescale, it said.

The report blamed the project's problems on poor government planning, describing the modernisation as a "case study in how not to manage a major programme".

New trains are set to run on the electrified lines

Mr Davies said Swansea's "jobs and prosperity must not be the price paid for Conservative incompetence in planning and implementing rail electrification".

He said it was "crucial that the Conservatives honour their promise to extend rail electrification to Swansea so we are part of the Europe-wide electrified rail network".

Welsh Economy and Infrastructure Secretary Ken Skates said it was important that the UK government "gets a grip of the situation".

"We are pressing the UK government for confirmation that electrification to Swansea will be delivered immediately after electrification to Cardiff is completed in 2018," he said.

Plaid Cymru transport spokesman Jonathan Edwards MP said electrification "should have happened under Labour's 13 years of unbroken rule but we are still waiting".

"The consequences of continued delay is that the Welsh economy will continue to perform below its potential, fewer jobs will be available to people here and those jobs that are available will be poorly paid," he said.

Russell George, for the Welsh Conservatives, said the UK government had committed "the largest investment in the railways since the Victorian era".

"We should never forget that in 13 years of Labour rule at Westminster there wasn't a single inch of track electrified here in Wales," he added.