Transport: South Wales
Debate between Lord Hain and Baroness Vere of Norbiton(1 year, 10 months ago)
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Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)
The M1 is one of our key arterial motorways, and it has had a number of upgrades over the years to increase capacity. We continue to look at those bottlenecks, and there will be more on that when announcements are made for RIS3, which is the next road investment strategy period, starting in 2025.
Lord Hain (Lab)
My Lords, why was electrification of the London to Cardiff line not extended to Swansea, as promised by the David Cameron Government?
Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)
That was because assessment of that electrification project showed no significant journey-time savings. In 2018, the National Audit Office concluded that it is right to assess investment decisions about upgrades to make sure that they give passenger benefits. We have to put our funding where it can have the largest passenger benefits.