As far as I know, the only person that can commit major rail infrastructure spend in Wales is Philip Hammond as (UK) Minister of Transport. Wales can lobby but otherwise can fund only local schemes. Plaid can promise what it likes but Hammond (and Osborne) will determine the extent of electrification in England and Wales. I should think the North Wales coast figures lower on their priority list than say Midland, cross-Pennine and Yorkshire schemes.
I would also imagine no new schemes will be announced until Network Rail have started rolling out the current schemes and demonstrated that unit costs are reducing. If Cardiff-Swansea isn't viable then surely Crewe-Holyhead isn't either.
My opinion is that the arguments given for Cardiff-Swansea being un-viable are a load of rubish. Only 1tph? What about the sparks effect and the Swanline service? No journey time saving due to geography of the line? Don't they understand it's acceleration that is giving the journey time improvments the rest of the way, not linespeed upgrades? Also, journey time is just a side-effect, the real benifits are reduced costs and carbon emmisions and increased reliablity, all of which you throw away if you go bi-mode. It's just the DfT thinking they can save money by having a bi-mode, the reality is they'll cost alot more to run.
Oh great, another expensive idea from a devolved country spending some of the tax from the country they want to be disasocciated with. Between free Scottish Uni, free Scottish prescriptions and all the Scottish re-opened routes, I can't help feeling these devolved parliaments like having cake and eating it!
I think Wales dosen't actually get it's fare share of the tax revenue based on population, maybe Scotland's the same or maybe it isn't. Either way, don't try to claim Wales is getting more than it's fair share.
Plaid have overseen a massive increase in North to South trains which will have to be diesel powered between Chester and Newport. Chester to Manchester via Warrington isn't electrified and I doubt the bidders for the WCML are planning on anything but Voyagers to North Wales. I wonder if Plaid knows any of this?
Sounds like an IEP Bi-mode Salesman's dream.
I think if the North Wales Coast is to be electrified, Chester to Manchester and Crewe will need wiring too and services from Cardiff to the North Wales coast will need to be reduced back to 2 or 3 diesels under the wires per day. Network Rail's electrification RUS says that if the Marches line is electrified the Manchester - Carmarthen/Milford would be split into 2 seperate services at Cardiff or Swansea. I reckon the same would need to happen with north-south services if the north Wales cost is wired without the Marches.
I see what you are saying, but part of the problem is that the London services don't all stop at Swansea, and stopping the wires there would lead to problems in west Wales (do places like Carmarthen lose their London links? do we go to the trouble of attaching 67s?)
At least with the Valley Lines you have a fairly self contained set of lines where there wouldn't be the need for IEP/ diesels under wires etc.
From what I've heard, I don't think IEP will ever reach Pembrokeshire anyway. Fishguard and Milford Haven will likely not warrant a London service and the 26m coaches of an IEP mean they cannot get to Tenby without enlarging a tunnel, expensive stuff. I've also heard there might be a problem leaving Swansea towards Carmarthen, I expect they are planning to rectify that though. At what cost will that come? and are there any obstructions between Cardiff and Swansea, on the Cotswold line, the lines to the far south-west and between Swindon and Severn Tunnel Junction (on the diversionary route)? Perhaps limiting these routes to 23m stock would allow some of them to be wired, with the oversized IEP limited to the ECML and the core Paddington to Oxford, Bristol and Cardiff section, allowing the daft bi-mode idea to be insinerated.
