Plans for the world’s first integrated train and rail infrastructure testing facility, which promises to create more than 1,100 permanent jobs in one of the most deprived areas of Wales, are now unlikely to be realised without the Welsh Government making a bigger financial commitment.

The £400m Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE), first proposed by the Welsh Government seven years ago, is earmarked for a 700-hectare site – the size of Gibraltar – at Onllwyn in the Dulais Valley.

The project would consist of two electrified 7km looped testing tracks for rolling stock and infrastructure, both designed to operate 24/7 year-round. It would also include train storage and maintenance facilities, a control centre, a 100-bedroom hotel, as well as training and R&D functions.

The land, which

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