Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:06 pm on 13 December 2016.
I thank the First Minister for that answer. As he knows, the Reading-Heathrow rail link will hugely improve access to Heathrow Airport for leisure and business travellers from south Wales and the south-west, and the west midlands and many other areas. It will reduce travel times down to around 26 minutes, reduce carbon, and transport more people on to rail and away from private transport. But it's also true that 1.3 million people have jobs with a foreign-owned firm that are facilitated through travel through Heathrow, and 8.8 per cent of those live in Wales—it's the biggest proportion of any part of the UK. So, in future discussions with the Prime Minister, but also with the Secretary of State for Transport in the UK Government, could he ram home the importance of this rail link? Regardless of Heathrow capacity expansion, this rail link, this spur, could deliver for people, for Wales, in very short order. We understand that the decision is going to be made sometime in early 2019; let's make it the right decision, because bold government is good government, as we have shown with Cardiff Airport.