REOPENING the Aberystwyth to Carmarthen rail line would be a leading priority for Plaid Cymru were they to seize power at the 2021 Welsh Assembly election, Adam Price, the party’s new leader, has pledged.

Speaking exclusively to the Cambrian News during the party’s conference in Cardigan on Saturday, Mr Price said one of his first aims as First Minister would be to spread prosperity throughout Wales.

“At the moment most of our country’s wealth is concentrated in the south-east,” he said.

“Yet in Ireland, for example, there has been a deliberate policy of spreading growth by investing in public transport infrastructure.

“With this in mind, the possibility of reopening the Aberystwyth-Carmarthen rail link would be something we would seriously look at in the first year of a Plaid government.

“It would create a western rail corridor linking Swansea through to Bangor, therefore opening up a corridor of economic opportunities, possibly through using renewable power so that the train itself becomes part of the attraction.

“In doing so it would connect no fewer than five universities and create a sense that west Wales was a modern, dynamic, prosperous region.”

When pressed on what could be done to prevent young people leaving Ceredigion to seek jobs elsewhere, Mr Price said he would set up a regional development agency to look at investment opportunities.

“Cardigan is coming on in leaps and bounds as a result of young entrepreneurial businesses,” he added, “but Wales as a whole loses thousands of our young people every year.

“What we need to do is create investment opportunities to attract them back.”

Read what else Mr Price had to say in this week’s south papers, available in shops and as a digital edition now