4. Has the First Minister considered the potential of the 'Bridgend Hub' transport proposal as part of the phased roll-out of the South Wales Metro? OAQ(5)0276(FM)

It has huge potential and we know that integration of public transport is an important aim of the south Wales metro. The next phase of metro development will be focused on the core Valleys lines. Proposals such as the hub will be considered in future phases.

I very much welcome that response and I know that funding for the successive phases of the roll-out is now a little bit more precarious, post Brexit. But it does provide some exciting potential here, the hub within Bridgend, which is still sitting along that area, which is the sixth biggest manufacturing area and employment area within the UK as well. It has enormous potential. If we’re to seize the benefits of a genuine south Wales metro, we have to push it up the Valleys and also westwards as well. So, perhaps, if he’ll take his hat off as First Minister and come down with me and meet with Councillor Huw David, the new leader of Labour-controlled Bridgend authority, we’ll sit down and discuss it together over a cup of tea.

I will pass that message on to the AM for Bridgend. [Laughter.] He is right; for Bridgend railway station, like so many others, it’s not practical for buses to go there and that’s part of the problem. Originally, there was a plan to put buses in the car park behind. The police objected and now the police have moved. So, there is an issue there. So, we have to look at new alternatives in terms of delivering a proper public transport hub, along the lines of Caerphilly, for example, where there’s a good example. In the future, rather than saying that we’re just going to live with the situation, where the main bus station and the main railway station are up—well, one is uphill from the other, and therefore inaccessible for people with mobility problems—new thinking will be needed as part of the metro project as to how we deliver those hubs in the future.

I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for his question, because I must admit, I’m a little bit sceptical about the attention that my region has been given in the course of all this—even that non-specific third phase that we’re talking about, in a number of years to come. There’s talk about things like a fast bus for Porthcawl, rather than anything more integrated. My constituents, including those from the western part of the region, don’t see the lines on the maps between projects like the Swansea bay city region and the Cardiff capital region, or even the south Wales metro. So, what will your Government do to ensure that all these projects dovetail properly for my constituents, rather than create cracks between them, through which those communities on the periphery are likely to fall?

The railway line for Porthcawl was closed by a Conservative Government in 1963.

What’s that got to do with my question?

I don’t hold her personally responsible for that, but that’s the reality of it. The line coming into the town was built over many, many years ago, and it’s now a dual-carriageway road and much of the line has gone. So, it would be impractical to reinstate the line from Heol y Sheet junction in Pyle, through the Nottage tunnel, long gone, into Porthcawl itself. So, we have to consider other alternatives for towns like Porthcawl in the future, given the fact that they were cut off from the rail network in the early 1960s. One suggestion is a fast bus; there are other possibilities that can be made available for towns that are a distance away from the heavy-rail network in the future.

Dai Lloyd. Oh, I can’t see him. Caroline Jones.

First Minister, in order for the south Wales metro to successfully deliver upon its stated outcome of lowering private car use, it must offer multimodal transport across the region. Therefore, are you as disappointed as I am that the Bridgend interchange will not be completed for another 10 to 15 years? Will the south Wales metro project be able to deliver the interchange sooner than envisioned in the Bridgend local transport plan?

That depends, of course, on that EU money that we’re going to lose—£125 million; forgive the irony there—being made up by the UK Government. The reality is that that will put a hole in the budget. It’s not fatal to the metro project, but without that money, it’ll be far more difficult to advance or to quicken the projects along the lines of the one that she’s just mentioned.