Chancellor Rachel Reeves will next week present the UK Government’s next three year spending commitments in the comprehensive spending review (CSR).

That should, if London is listening, see some major pledges for rail enhancement investment in Wales.

Instead of focusing on the case for rail devolution, the failings of the Barnett formula and decades of relative underspend on Wales’s rail network by various UK governments, I want to focus on looking ahead and arguing for £4bn rail investment to 2040.

As I set out in a letter to Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander last December, this is based on rail enhancement commitments likely in England of approximately £80bn over the same period.

These commitments include to complete HS2, TransPennine upgrade, East West Rail, and some new schemes in England - some of which have been announced ahead of the CSR including more trams in Manchester, Leeds-Bradford tram, Liverpool, Bristol and the West of England.

Some £4bn for Wales would be a commensurate and a fair Barnett allocation and can be directed at schemes in Wales already........

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