Swansea campaigners take fight for rail electrification to Westminster

SWANSEA campaigners for rail electrification have taken their fight to Westminster.

A cross-section of the city's professionals met with Rail Minister Theresa Villiers about the importance of modernising the Great Western lines all the way to Swansea.

The group included council leader Chris Holley, Swansea East MP Sian James, Swansea West MP Geraint Davies, Iwan Davies from Swansea University, Bruce Roberts, secretary of the Swansea Business Club, and Evening Post editor Spencer Feeney.

Mrs James said the meeting was very productive, adding: "The minister recognised the hard work and determination locally to support electrification.

"We knew she wasn't going to roll over and capitulate, but it was a very productive meeting with two of her advisors also talking to us about the business case."

Geraint Davies said Prof Iwan Davies had highlighted to Mrs Villiers the fact that Swansea needed to be a regional economic hub and the important role electrification played.

The Swansea West MP added: "The meeting showed we are positive and united in our ambitions for a strong Swansea in the future and the cost of �62 million to bring the lines to Swansea is small in terms of the wider gains. Plus a large portion of that could be paid from convergence funding.

"The minister argued the hybrid trains were identical to electric trains from the point of view of passengers, except there would be two diesel engines. She also said we would already be getting a saving of 20 minutes." He added: "She's not convinced electrification the whole way would make a big difference, but we are, and we are going to get people on either side to thrash out the technical details."

Both sides have agreed to meet again in two months to discuss the cost and benefit following discussions with technical experts.

The Swansea campaign group is hoping to involve rail expert Stuart Cole from Glamorgan University in those discussions.

He added: "We are also arguing the case that when electrification does happen in about four or five years time, we also provide and additional direct service between Cardiff and Swansea. We could advertise this to investors saying we've got a faster link to London.

"But we want to talk about this now because the time frame for investors is a few years not a few weeks."

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/32715/f/503366/s/145032b4/l/0L0Sthisissouthwales0O0Cnews0CCampaigners0Efight0Erail0Eelectrification0Egoes0ELondon0Carticle0E34662670Edetail0Carticle0Bhtml/story01.htm

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