I’m grateful to the Minister for his statement and support the sensible devolution of this franchise to the Assembly and to the Welsh Government. I note, though, there has been 18 months of negotiations, and I wonder if the Minister could update on why those negotiations have yet to come to fruition. He compared Transport for Wales to Transport for London and mentioned some of the differences. I recall, in another context, despite Transport for London’s transformative improvements to the overground in London, it found it very difficult to negotiate extensions even very slightly outside the greater London boundaries to Hertfordshire and to Kent, and I just wonder what the Minister is doing in terms of those services that go along the border, in terms of convincing representatives and people who’d benefit from those services that a focused Welsh Government looking at that franchise is more likely to deliver improvements, perhaps, than a UK Government that has a very large number of franchises across the UK to consider.

The gap, I felt, in his statement was any update on the timescale for electrification. He mentioned north Wales electrification as the backbone for modernisation and for the Metro North proposals, but surely that electrification is still a very distant prospect, unless he can update us on anything we’re not aware of. Given delays that have been elsewhere, it’s very difficult to see that north Wales electrification coming on a quick timetable, and I just wonder how he can use it as the backbone for everything else, given the challenges involved in delivering that.

On electrification in south Wales, I just ask: can he give any update at all in terms of the likely timings? We saw over the weekend the Bridge Street bridge in Newport being removed and laid by the tracks outside the station, and that is encouraging and a physical manifestation of progress, but when does he expect electrification to be complete to Swansea, and what can he say about what improvements we will see in journey time and, potentially, frequency, and how does that feed in to the negotiations around a new franchise?

Could I also just say that, as well as the frequency and the reliability and capacity of services, many of my constituents in the south-east Wales Valleys are also very concerned about the cost? There is the potential, frequently, for people who may be able to go to Cardiff, or might be able to get employment in Cardiff, if the transport allowed them to get there cost-effectively, and cost is a really significant consideration, particularly when there is the withdrawal of tax credits and marginal tax rates. Anything that can be done to improve the cost, certainly for a subsection of people, is perhaps the more pressing issue, even if there are welcome improvements in frequency and reliability.

Finally, in terms of the south Wales metro, I entirely understand why the Government wishes to contract and to have tenders on a neutral basis between heavy rail, light rail, and bus services, but I still find some concern that a move from heavy rail to light rail is perceived, at least in some quarters, as a potential downgrade to that service. What can he do to reassure people that that is not the case, and that light rail will be a potentially more than adequate improvement? And does he also understand the very different implications of capital cost of provision of bus versus light rail versus heavy rail? Perhaps the light rail might be cheaper to operate in the long run, but would have significant capital investment where it would be replacing a heavy rail service, and different bidders may have different access to capital. And, when gilt yields are 0.8 per cent over 10 years, when he’s putting the risk, potentially, of that capital expenditure onto the private sector, may he not unnecessarily reduce the amount of bids and the number of providers who can come forward cost-effectively, if they’re all having to fund that capital, and some of them, of course, will be better able to do so than others? Thank you.