Some pensive thoughts on a Sunday night below, regarding rail infrastructure in Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr.
This week, the UK and Welsh Government jointly announced plans for seven new train stations for Wales, after almost half a billion pounds of rail funding was allocated for Welsh rail in last year’s Spending Review.
One of these will be at Deeside Industrial Park, which many of my constituents in the Glyndŵr area commute to. This is good news, as is a new bid from the Wrexham, Shropshire & Midlands Railway (WSMR)/Alstom to open a new direct line from Wrexham General to London. Planned upgrades to the Liverpool line are another boon for constituents heading north.
Designs are being drawn up for a disabled ramp at Ruabon Station too, something I have been pushing for, although a final decision is yet to be made on funding its construction. While things are far from perfect, this is all good news for Glyndŵr.
At the same time, no new projects were announced in Montgomeryshire or indeed anywhere in Mid Wales, a bitter disappointment.
I have been campaigning alongside the Carno Station Action Group (running since as far back as 2002) to reopen the station there, closed during the Beeching Cuts.
Funding for was not forthcoming this time, although I hope to make it easier for MPs to lobby Great British Railways (the new state-owned operator) to look into restoring services in under-served areas, through my proposed amendment to the Railways Bill.
This illustrates something both about Wales – the north and south are generally prioritised over the middle and west, because of population density – and about representing a very large and often disparate constituency.
My job is to represent all my constituents equally, to the best of my ability. Urban or rural, five miles from the coast or five metres from England. I take it very seriously.
So, it can be hard for me when, just as in life: you win some, you lose some.
But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying. All aboard.