As a proud north Walian—I’m not sure I’ve ever mentioned that here before—I welcome today’s debate and the chance to be able to contribute. As others have said, north Wales is not simply, literally, physically connected to our near neighbours in the north-west of England, we’re also economically connected, too. Upgrades and investment in our region’s transport infrastructure is a key part of any strategy to grow and enhance our economy and ultimately to unlock the economic potential of north Wales.

The Welsh Labour north Wales manifesto outlined a vision to link our region in a more strategic way and to assist in delivering stronger economic growth for the area. The manifesto said—don’t worry, I’m not going to read it out verbatim now—that within 100 days of a new Welsh Labour Government, we would convene a summit of leaders from the Mersey Dee area and the Northern Powerhouse to establish a route map on how best to create a dynamic economy that benefits both sides of the border. And I look forward to seeing the progression of the route map to our economic prosperity.

And on the topic of routes—or roads, more to the point—as he said, and as other speakers before me have said, upgrades to roads like the A55 and the A494 are a crucial part of enabling this dynamic economy. We know that the east-west link, and vice versa, is a key route for travel to and from work in the area. Looking more to public transport, I understand that a rail taskforce was established to seek solutions to those well-known and well-rehearsed problems and challenges we face in north Wales, whether that be with regard to infrastructure or to the services themselves. I’d ask the Cabinet Secretary today, if this taskforce is fully operational, if we could have an update on its progress.

In addition, as a consequence of the ongoing long-term fragmentation of bus services, bus connections can often be challenging, to say the least. Constituents I speak to—many constituents don’t necessarily have a problem with having to take two buses, what they do have a problem with is when the bus that they’re arriving on arrives 10 minutes after the next bus they wanted to get on. So, we also need to look at better connections, not between bus services, but also links to those train services in the region as well. So, I’d urge that this is also addressed as part of an overarching transport and economic strategy for north Wales. Diolch.