You referred to improved provision for disabled passengers, and comments have been made about that already. Will you ensure that your consideration includes sensory impairments—people with hearing and sight loss? Will you provide assurance that when the tender goes out that, in accordance with procurement requirements, this will be on a level playing field with no presumption of any particular model better fitting the needs or requirements of Welsh Government?

When you responded to my written question,

‘What consideration is the Welsh Government giving to requiring trains to be fitted out with automatic passenger counts?’ you replied that,

‘The…Wales and Borders franchise will specify high quality rolling stock that may include the fitment of automatic passenger counting equipment.’

Will you therefore please address the concern that robust arrangements for passenger counts should be a key specification with the new franchise, and will need to be picked up on when more detailed proposals are consulted upon?

What is the Welsh Government’s position on calls from rail user groups for two trains per hour on the Wrexham-Bidston route, starting earlier and continuing into the evening, within the franchise specification for 2018?

With regard to the reference we’ve heard in your statement to the metro programme for north Wales and the north Wales summit last Friday, in your statement you say you want to maximise opportunities for cross-border connectivity and you refer to growth deals either side of the border. Is it not the case that we need a single growth deal with the Governments working together, which was the UK Government offer? I’m pleased that the Under-secretary was present, I understand, at the meeting on Friday, but could you comment in the context of that joined-up growth deal and the work of the north Wales business council, the economic ambition board, the Mersey Dee Alliance, and others on a proposal that incorporates the whole of north Wales, from Holyhead through into north-west England, not just specifically what you’re referring to as the metro region?

Finally, given evidence suggesting that 20 per cent of interview or job offers at Deeside industrial park are being turned down due to transport difficulties, and that the 2011 census shows the use of rail to travel to work in Flintshire at only 1 per cent—less than half the average for the whole of Wales, in a region where there’s a stronger economy and a significant population living within 5 km of existing stations—how will the Welsh Government’s proposals for rail transport in the region enable people to reliably get from where they are to where they wish to go, at the time they wish to travel, enabling those who can’t drive to access employment and promote a modal shift to rail in our region?