I have to say that a lot of these arguments are very familiar. I think that those of us who have served since 1999 are now affectionately known in the Assembly as ‘the lifers’—[Laughter.]—and it does feel that way sometimes. I see there are two other lifers in the Chamber. Indeed, Dr Lloyd was first elected in 1999, but because of his good behaviour, he was given a brief period of parole, but of course we are delighted that he’s back serving his time. The point I want to make is that, when all this was discussed in 2003, we didn’t have the powers. These wider arguments about infrastructure and how we would be able to control the wider sort of environment so that we could make effective decisions were discussed. When I was Chair of the Audit Committee, there was a report pointing out some of the shortcomings in the procedures that were adopted and, you know, regretting perhaps the decision of the Welsh Government at that time not to take these powers because they thought they were getting such a poor deal from the UK Government—then, of course, a Labour Government. So, I think it is really important that the committee points to the issue of more effective collaboration being required between the different Governments, because there’s a strategic issue here, and it’s slightly depressing that, 15 years later, people are making similar points. I don’t express how valid they are, but, clearly, many people hold these views and some of them, no doubt, do have some substance.

Can I say that I particularly note, as a Member serving the Valleys, that the risk of transferring ownership of the Valleys lines to the Welsh Government does concern me, as does the rather sad plight of freight in the Valleys? Most of the Valleys networks were actually developed for freight, and it was a secondary thing to have passenger transport on them. So, I do think we should be very careful about losing that capacity to carry freight.

I’m particularly pleased to see the recommendations around greener railways, effective monitoring and affordable fares, as well as the redevelopment of Cardiff Central station and the long-promised rail electrification to Swansea. I’d say, as a Welsh Conservative, that I only wish that that commitment had been maintained, and we’re completely right to argue that it should be reinstated.

I’m a regular user of Arriva trains, and, you know, I speak with experience about the quality of the service over that time, but it actually does return to a rather dull franchise being awarded in the first place. I noticed that the Welsh Affairs Committee looked at this and called the service rather ‘old and cramped’ and said that at the heart of the failure was the inability to anticipate remarkable passenger growth. We should be celebrating the passenger growth. In fairness, I don’t know quite how active Arriva Trains have been in that but, I mean, it has happened, and that ought to be something that we really want to take further because that rather dry phrase ‘modal shift’ is really, really important. Even in the last few years, this process has continued with over 0.25 million extra commuters now using the service in south Wales, so those are really important things.

I want to make some more general points about freight, having referred earlier to the Valleys. I’m not quite sure that the Government knows quite where it’s going, because the previous administration under Rhodri Morgan did identify freight and its growth and development as being really important, so I’m disappointed that you are only accepting recommendation 14 in principle. I have to say, as a former Chair of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, I never quite like Governments when they accept ‘in principle’ because you don’t really know what that means, do you, other than some sort of milk-and-water endorsement that doesn’t get you very far? But, the Cabinet Secretary’s response highlights that the demand for freight has reduced recently due to the closure of opencast mining in some areas. But, previously, the potential for increasing freight in such areas as maritime containers has been identified by the Government, and I fear that perhaps they’re losing sight of that now.

The report says that the Government’s intentions are on a heroic scale and I don’t think we should criticise them for that, but we do need to ensure that the monitoring and scrutiny is effective, so that some of these ambitions are realised. But, I do congratulate my colleague Russell George and his committee members on a thoroughly good piece of work. I think this report will stand us in good stead to monitor the Government’s performance in the future.