Our MP Don Foster has warmly welcomed the news that the government is to begin immediately with plans to electrify the Great Western line from London to Swansea.

Although the work will take 8 years to complete, it will provide numerous benefits including increased capacity on trains, shorter journey times and, most importantly, a reduction in CO2 emissions.

Liberal Democrats have long campaigned from electrification of the rail network, and this plan was included within the “Green Road out of Recession” document that the party launched in autumn 2008. Don said,

Electrification of the Great Western line is long overdue, and something that I have been calling to happen for some time. This is great news for rail users in Bath, as well as all of us conscious of rising levels of CO2.

We have recently seen an increase in reliability of this service, so Bath and Oldfield Park train users are now finally getting a better deal. However, we still have the problem of hugely expensive fares – the London to Cardiff line is the 3rd most expensive per mile in the world.

There are still improvements needed to our service in the eight years before electrification, but there is now clearly a brighter future ahead for rail users in Bath.