7. What discussions has the Welsh Government had with the UK Government to improve current rail services in south-east Wales? OAQ(5)0397(FM)

We are in regular dialogue with the UK Government on these matters due to the current arrangements for managing the Wales and borders franchise, and, of course, we are leading the procurement of the next franchise, which will improve services.

Thank you. Tonight on BBC Wales’s ‘Week In Week Out’, Nick Servini goes behind the scenes of Arriva Trains Wales as it investigates the worst overcrowding on commuter trains for years. My constituents in Islwyn continually raise with me overcrowding on Arriva Trains Wales, but the focus of Arriva Trains Wales has made a profit of £133.88 million in dividends for its parent company since taking over the UK franchise to run the Wales and borders train services. It also had £70 million in the bank at the time it filed its last accounts and, as stated to the leader of Plaid Cymru, the existing franchise does come to an end in October 2018, an agonising 20 months away. My constituents are fearful that during the forthcoming six nations they will again be stuck on railway stations in Newbridge, Crosskeys, Risca and Pontymister as the Ebbw Vale to Cardiff service is already at capacity. And, as electrification is so deeply delayed from the UK Government, can I ask that the First Minister calls on the UK Government to do its job and act, and for the UK Government to call on Arriva Trains Wales to find an interim solution before the new franchise is awarded? And can he outline what investigations have taken place into the capacity for Arriva to hire contemporary railway carriages that could be pulled by older diesel engines?

The difficulty we have is that we work with Arriva, that’s true, but, in terms of having levers—well, no, they won’t arrive until next year. Why this wasn’t devolved before is a good question, but at least from next year we’ll have this opportunity. I know in the past that Arriva has obtained locomotives to pull locomotive-hauled trains. They did it in the Rhymney valley for a number of years and those trains were popular, actually, with commuters. There is no reason to my mind why they couldn’t seek to do that again. But what my colleague the Member for Islwyn has neatly outlined is the frankly barmy situation where we pay a subsidy to rail operators to provide a substandard service while they make enormous profit. This, apparently, was the wonder of privatisation back in the early 1990s. My view is that we should be in the same position as the Scots, where we’re able to look at having a public sector not-for-profit agency running the railway lines for the benefit of the people of Wales, and not by paying a subsidy in order to pay shareholders.

The House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee has said recently that there is an urgent need for new trains on Wales’s rail network. It went on to say that passengers were tired of old and cramped trains, with some rolling stock in use being over 40 years old. Some locomotives are still running after their sell-by date. With the Wales and borders franchise coming up for renewal, First Minister, what discussions has the Welsh Government had with regard to providing modern trains to improve rail services for passengers in south-east Wales, which has been promised for a very long time now?

These are all part of the franchise negotiations. We’ve already, of course, very publicly produced our plan for a metro, which will see an improvement in journey times and, indeed, in facilities and rolling stock, as far as passengers are concerned. For the first time, it will be the people of Wales who are able to determine what their train services—not InterCity, but what their train services actually look like. We had this bizarre situation at one point where it was said that the Wales and borders franchise would only cover trains that began their journeys and terminated their journeys in Wales, which would mean, effectively, the Conwy Valley line and nothing else north of Merthyr. I’m glad that that rather odd situation seems to have been vacated by the UK Government, but we are determined to provide a far better level of service, not just, in fact, for our own people, but for those people who live on the other side of the border but who use trains from the Wales and borders franchise.

I declare an interest in that my sister works for Network Rail. First Minister, I’ve had correspondence from people who are frustrated at insufficient public transport links in Blaenau Gwent at night time. Currently, the last Cardiff train stops at Llanhilleth, with no public transport links to get further up the valley, leaving taxis as the only option, if any of those are available. So, can he update us on plans to open a new station at Abertillery? But importantly, what steps and what intervention will the Welsh Government take, and partnership working with the local authority, to provide adequate bus links before a new metro comes on stream?

I do feel the Member has made himself the font, or the recipient, rather, of all rail-related complaints in the Assembly as a result of his declaration, but he makes an important point. Abertillery, of course, is included in the metro plans as an area of expansion. The railway tracks were last used when the Rose Heyworth mine was still in place some 30 years ago now, nearly. But it is a community that needs to be linked in. Where there are no existing heavy rail lines, then light rail clearly is a preference; it’s more easily extendable and we want to make sure that communities that lost their rail links some years ago do regain them as part of the metro plans.