Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 3 October 2017.
If they don’t do that, we won’t be able to move forward—it’s as plain as that. We have done everything that we need to do, and so now they must take action. But there is no indication at present that there will be a problem. We wish the franchise to progress as it should in April. We’re also talking to the unions to ensure that they understand what we’re trying to do. It would be much easier had they devolved the funding and the powers to us from the outset, particularly the power to instruct Network Rail. We don’t have that at the moment, so we have to consider new ways of doing things. But what is important is that we can act on behalf of the people of Wales in a way that wasn’t possible previously.