Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 24 January 2017.
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?