I’ve reported enough about the row over plans to electrify the rail line from London to Swansea – plans that are on hold while a decision is being made by the UK Government.
Today Plaid Cymru came up with plans to electrify more of our railways.
The party says it wants to electrify the Valleys lines in the south – and will look at the potential of electrifying lines in the North.
I asked Plaid’s Deputy leader, Helen Mary Jones, about the likely cost of this. She said it’s not fully costed yet but is likely to be in the region of £500m, with the majority of the bill being picked up by Network Rail.
Proposals for the north are much vaguer and remain a ‘potential’ at this stage.
I wondered if either of these ideas were dependent on the UK government electrifying the line from London. They’re not.
In what’s becoming a habit, I asked Helen Mary Jones what the status of any such a pledge would be – in other words, would it survive coalition talks?
This one isn’t even a manifesto pledge yet, but she said if it were left up to her, any pledge on electrification would be a red line in coalition negotiations.
ITVAdrian 
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