Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 18 October 2016.
Naturally, following on from that, there is concern on this side of the border about the quality of rail services, by the people of Wales. As has already been mentioned, we have seen these four companies bidding for the Wales and borders franchise and, naturally, to be fair, you have answered written questions from me on this very issue, of how exactly the railways will be operating under the franchise and whether the railways will stay fundamentally the same. What you’ve said, and to quote you:
‘routes operated under the next Wales and Borders franchise to be broadly unchanged.’
I’ve listened to the responses that have been given already today, but what does ‘broadly unchanged’ mean in this context? Will the most profitable railways remain as part of this franchise? Because if they don’t, we may find ourselves in the bizarre situation where, from this Assembly, we’ll be able to give a right to run the Wales and borders franchise to a private company from anywhere in the world and we’ll be funding their shareholders too, in countries abroad, while having virtually no power over investments in our own railways here in Wales.
So, can I ask, in the future—and I do understand that the work on this franchise is ongoing—are there any plans in the next franchise to claim more investment in the rail network here in Wales? Thank you.