London Station Prompts Anger Over Disruption To Wales

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Building London's new HS2 station will mean ⁘massive disruption with no benefit⁘ for passengers travelling to the UK capital from south Wales, an MP has said.

Construction of the largest railway station ever built in the UK at Old Oak Common in west London will add 15 minutes to journeys to London until 2030 as trains will go to Euston instead of Paddington.

Ruth Jones, MP for Newport West and Islwyn, urged train operators and Network Rail to look at mitigation for people using the service from Sunday, saying the situation had been ⁘badly managed⁘.

The Department for Transport said it was working with HS2, Great Western Railway (GWR) and Network Rail to minimise disruption.

Despite being entirely in England, Wales has received no extra funding from the UK government as a result.

⁘I understand the need for HS2, don't get me wrong, but it's the impact on our line coming from south Wales for no benefit to the people of south Wales, that's my big issue.⁘

The MP stopped short of calling for Wales to be given consequential cash, but said she would be feeding back to ministers.

Most of the work will take place at weekends or overnight and the first scheduled disruption is on 17 November when there will be no trains to or from Paddington.