Labour-Plaid government is ignoring Mid-Wales

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 6th Oct 2008

Ceredigion's Welsh Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams has criticised the Welsh Assembly Government for ignoring the needs of railway users in mid-Wales. The Labour/Plaid Welsh Assembly Government's 'Economic Growth Focussed Transport Investments' presentation to the Assembly's Programme Monitoring Committee, gave no mention of the Welsh Assembly's willingness to spend any potential additional money from EU Convergence Funding on the Cambrian Railway Line.

Ceredigion's MP Mark Williams said: "We have heard much from the Welsh Assembly Government about its support for an hourly service on the Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury railway line and whilst it has committed £8m in capital funding in 2008-09 to help cover infrastructure costs on the line, no such financial support has been allocated to fund additional services on the line. Their presentation talks of improvements from potential European funding to the South Wales Mainline between Llanelli and Swansea. It also talks of improvements to the Rhymney Valley, Ebbw Valley and Maesteg lines and of infrastructure works at Caerphily and Pontypridd. There's no doubting the importance of these works in south Wales but it could lead many to ask why has no firm commitments been made to improving the service on the Cambrian railway line in mid-Wales?"We desperately need to capitalise on the growing demand for our railway services from Aberystwyth. In a time of ever growing concern about the environment and our individual impact on it, more and more people are seeing the railway as an alternative mode of transport. But as passengers coming to and leaving Aberystwyth will well know, the service they get is frequently below what they should expect."If the Labour-Plaid Cardiff Bay Government believe in helping rural communities and not just those of south Wales, they should prove it by promising European funding for a greater service on the Cambrian railway line, and in particular an hourly service between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury".