Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:06 pm on 26 September 2017.
Can I thank Dai Lloyd for his questions and his comments? Bus reforms have been consulted on already, in the last 12 months. That consultation took place at the start of this year and ended in May. We’ll be taking forward, based on the consultation, a further piece of work in the spring of next year, which could, in turn, inform provisions within potential future legislation, but it is a very valid question about whether public bodies could and should run local bus services. It’s something that I’m personally in favour of, and I also believe that we need to ensure that corrections are made, as soon as we possibly can with the new powers, to some of the problems that have been in existence since deregulation in the 1980s. But, as I say, the consultation did take place in this area. It will inform a further consultation on the package of provisions that could be included in potential future legislation.
In terms of the Deeside hub and the other hubs that are proposed for north Wales, it’s a fact that Flintshire County Council have already developed a very effective Deeside plan that has informed the specific interventions within the Deeside hub as proposed today. We will be working with other local authorities on similar hub visions, and we will be linking them together through the metro concept. This is a system and a design that must serve local needs and be worked up with those local authorities where they’re going to be situated, rather than have them imposed by Welsh Government. I’m very keen to work with my partners across north Wales to ensure that the hubs and the metro system that link them operate for the people, and are designed by their local representatives as much as by experts and designers within Welsh Government.
In terms of investment in rail infrastructure, the Member is right; it’s 11 per cent of the Network Rail Wales route, but only 1.5 per cent of funding, in the latest control period, has actually come to Wales for infrastructure investment. That’s not acceptable. We made a powerful case for devolution of responsibility for rail infrastructure, and with it appropriate fair funding. We continue to make that call. In the meantime, we continue to press upon the Secretary of State for Transport the need to invest in Wales, and in particular in some of those projects that require urgent attention. The Member asked what other rail-related projects I believe should attract immediate attention and I would say the north Wales main line.