The comments came from Mr George after questioning Welsh Government Ministers about why the hourly service on the Cambrian line has yet to be delivered - a year after the Government was scheduled to implement it as part of its National Transport Plan priorities.
He questioned the Minister for Finance (11 July) about perceived budgetary barriers and questioned the Transport Minister (4 July) regarding political will and leadership. However, he was told that the government want to ensure the ‘sustainability’ of the service and would be working towards commencing services in 2014-15.
Commenting, Mr George said:
"This revelation from the Welsh Government is truly amazing.
"When the Government published its National Transport Plan in 2010, it identified building capacity on the Cambrian Line as a priority and had already committed itself to investing millions of pounds in the infrastructure work required to upgrade the service.
"It promised that this service would be in place by 2011, yet I now discover that the Government is not expecting Arriva Trains Wales to implement the service before the winter of 2014-15 at the earliest.
"They have effectively kicked this commitment into the long grass and have not properly explained why.
"All Ministers are telling me is that they are discussing the sustainability of the service with Arriva Trains Wales and Network Rail and there are also some financial barriers to overcome.
"However, it sounds to me that the barrier is more to do with political will and leadership than anything else.
"Having discovered last week that a new hourly service is to be implemented this winter on the rural East Suffolk line, between Ipswich and Lowestoft, less than two years from when the plans were announced, it proves what can be achieved even in these tough economic times.
"This announcement just shows the disregard this Government has to Mid Wales and I believe this lack of prioritisation is totally unacceptable."