The Leaders of the six North Wales Councils have backed the campaign to electrify the Crewe – Holyhead railway line.
Cllr. Dilwyn Roberts, Chair of the North Wales Regional Leadership Board and Leader of Conwy County Borough Council said:
“The Leaders of the six North Wales Councils are fully in favour of electrification of the Holyhead – Crewe Railway Line. Electrification will improve North Wales’ connectivity with the wider UK railway network and enable many other economic development opportunities.
“We will commission an economic study which will show the benefits to North Wales and the UK of electrifying the Holyhead to Crewe Railway Line. We will submit our study to the Welsh and UK governments.”
“The Welsh Government will be a key partner. Carl Sargeant AM, the Minister for Transport in Wales has assured us by letter that he will work with us to make the case for electrifying the Holyhead – Crewe railway.”
Cllr. Hugh Evans, Leader of Denbighshire and Chair of the North Wales Economic Ambition Board said:
“We had a really good meeting on the 23rd November 2012 where David Jones MP, chaired the meeting and gave us advice on how to take forward our case. Without his help we could not have pulled together so many stakeholders so quickly. We will involve representatives of business, the chairs of the Welsh Enterprise Zones, all the local authorities along the railway line to Crewe, the TAITH transport consortium, Network Rail, The Welsh Government and the Mersey Dee Alliance in our study of the economic benefits of electrification.
“If we are serious about rail electrification in North Wales we must develop a strong “Team North Wales” approach. We must demonstrate that the substantial investment to electrify the line will be of great economic benefit to North Wales and the UK.
“The economic development of North Wales is being held back by transport infrastructure that is now out of date. The electrification of the Holyhead – Crewe line will be the centrepiece of a series of transport infrastructure improvements that we will campaign for and kick-start the modernisation of our transport infrastructure and wider economy.”
