<p>Improving Rail Services</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 7 December 2016.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 2:05, 7 December 2016

Okay, yes, absolutely. It is a hugely ambitious project and I’d like to thank the Member for his very kind question to me. The cost of the south Wales metro is currently estimated at over £700 million and the timescales are as follows—I’ll go through each of the key points. We’re going to be awarding the operator and developer partner for the franchise and the metro by the end of 2017. We’re going to award the infrastructure contracts by the spring of 2018. By October of 2018, the new franchise will begin. The metro design will take place in 2018-19. Infrastructure delivery will be on site from 2019 and services will be operational from 2023. As the Member outlines, this is a hugely ambitious project, one that we should be excited about and proud of and I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to meet all of those key deadlines and markers. To date, we haven’t missed any of the key timings of this project.