While a non devolved rail asset the Welsh Government and the Cardiff Capital Region are funding around half the cost of the £140m project
The Welsh Government said that a £140m revamp of Cardiff Train Station would not be possible without it making a major financial contribution, despite it being a non-devolved rail asset.
Earlier this month, the business case for upgrading the biggest station in Wales was signed off by the UK Government’s Department for Transport (DfT).
The breakdown of the funding is around £22m from the Welsh Government, £77.8m from the DfT and £40m from the Cardiff Capital Region — via its £1.2bn, now nearly fully invested City Deal jointly funded by the UK and Welsh governments.
The station, while leased and operated by the Welsh Government’s transport body, Transport for Wales, is owned by Network Rail and ultimately the UK Government.
The station currently handles around 13 million passengers a year, but with the £1bn electrification of the Core Valley Lines – which will see its first turn-up-and-go tram-trains being pressed into service next year – this could rise to more than 20 million over the next decade.
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The upgrade of the station will not add any new platform or track capacity, apart from platform zero being extended, but will provide a larger concourse to increase capacity and improve passenger access through additional gate lines. There will also be a new entrance, with a brick arch, on its south side. The work is scheduled to be completed in time for the hosting of the opening game of the Euro 2028 men’s football tournament at the Principality Stadium.
The DfT was asked why the project, at a non-devolved station, is being nearly half funded by the Welsh Government and the Cardiff Capital Region. Their position is that both will directly benefit from the upgrade, through increased demand for Transport for Wales services and wider economic growth, while their assurance processes confirmed the project strongly aligns with their strategic priorities.
A DfT spokesperson said: “Cardiff Central is one of the busiest stations in Wales and this major upgrade will create a modern, accessible transport hub that improves journeys for passengers across the region.”
The Welsh Government position is that without its contribution the project would not have been able to proceed and that it had taken on a formerly agreed contribution from train operating company KeolisAmey. Under the former Wales and Borders rail franchise, which had been awarded to KeolisAmey before the pandemic, it had agreed to commit profits generated from the first few years of operating the 15-year franchise to the station project, which commenced in October 2018.
During the pandemic, enacting the operator of last resort mechanism, the Welsh Government took over the running of the franchise through a new subsidiary of TfW Rail Ltd. Several thousand staff who had worked for KeolisAmey – a joint venture between French transport operator Keolis and Spanish infrastructure management consultancy Amey – transferred into the Transport for Wales subsidiary.
On why the Welsh Government is financing part of the cost of the Cardiff Train Station scheme, Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, Ken Skates, said: “The UK Government is the majority funder for the Cardiff Central enhancements programme. It was necessary for the Welsh Government to take on this commitment to secure £77m from the UK Government alongside the £40m from Cardiff Capital Region to revamp Wales’ busiest railway station.”
Asked if the Welsh Government had asked the UK Government to take on what had been a financial commitment from a private venture in KeolisAmey – which, like other train operators in the UK, had seen its business model rendered not viable by passenger restrictions during the pandemic – Mr Skates said: “Our funding contribution to upgrade Wales’ busiest station has helped secure the investment from both the UK Government and Cardiff Capital Region. The funding commitment, originally made by KeolisAmey, was inherited following the Welsh Government’s move to bring rail services back into the public sector.”
The Welsh Government will provide £21m from 2027–28 onwards for the delivery of the scheme.
The Welsh Government has a track record of having to fund non-devolved rail enhancement projects. It spent £160m, which included a non interest bearing 50-year loan to Blaenau Gwent of £70m, to upgrade the Ebbw Vale line.
While at the time a non-devolved asset, the Welsh Government also agreed to finance the lion’s share of what turned out to be – with inflationary pressures and delays caused by the pandemic – the £1.1bn cost of electrifying the Core Valley Lines.
This is money that could have been deployed from its block grant to support devolved spending areas like health and education. The Core Valley Lines are now a devolved rail asset.
MS and Plaid Cymru’s transport spokesperson Peredur Owen Griffiths said: “When it comes to rail funding in Wales, there are undeniable facts: we’ve received a fraction of the rail enhancement funding owed to us over the years, our infrastructure has suffered from decades of neglect, and successive UK Governments have failed to deliver the fair funding Wales needs to improve its transport network.
“This project – whilst welcome on its own merit – is the latest where the UK Government has provided some funding but has required match funding from Wales for the project to actually go ahead.
“Labour has no real interest in delivering for Wales. They say no to giving us the HS2 billions that would truly transform our rail network, whilst pressing ahead with re-classifying other developments in England as “England and Wales” projects meaning we will miss out even more.
“It’s time for Westminster to pay up on Wales’s missing billions, and a Plaid Cymru government would be unrelenting in making that case.”
