I'm very pleased to sponsor and to speak on this motion, and I'm very keen to see the metro plans come to fruition and to see less use of the car. The motion notes, as several speakers have already said, that a fully integrated public transport system, including active travel, is needed to provide a practical and attractive alternative to car use.

I'd just like to quote from an e-mail I received from a constituent this morning, which I think sums up our train transport problems in Cardiff in a nutshell, which have already been referred to by my colleague Jenny Rathbone. My constituent says, 

'Last night 3 trains went by before I could squeeze on a 4th. None had adequate carriages. I’m heavily pregnant at the moment and it’s becoming harder and harder to use the train as it’s so crushed. Plus it’s making me too late to pick my son up despite leaving 40 mins for a 4 min journey. I will soon be going back to using my car—something I really don’t want to do. I also miss out on cheaper childcare available to me in the city centre (provided by my work) as I'm not willing to put my two-year old through going on the trains in those conditions. There's no way anybody elderly or with certain disabilities could handle it either (I doubt a wheelchair would ever fit on).'

So, I think that e-mail illustrates what commuters are experiencing, but it also shows how the different priorities that are very important to us in this Assembly and important to the Government, such as cheaper childcare—or we hope that there'll be a lot more free childcare available—are dependent on transport to get you there. So, all the different bits of the Government are all linked together, and I think that e-mail does illustrate that.

I had another e-mail only this morning, as well, saying,

'The trains are old, smelly, unreliable, stiflingly hot and usually extremely overcrowded. I moved to the area recently and I started my new job in the city centre approximately 3 weeks ago. I have already been late due to the poor running of the trains on 4 occasions. You can imagine this does not really make a good impression on my new boss but my other options of commuting are extremely limited—the amount of traffic into town certainly does not need to be added to. In any event, I purchased my property based on its proximity to the train station!'

That is really picking up on the point that Lee Waters has made—that people want to move to live near the train stations. There will be rising land values, and I certainly support the proposal about capitalising on the rising land values, but obviously, we've got to get the transport systems to work.

I welcome the plans for the metro, but fully integrated public transport and active travel also requires us to think, as Lee Waters also said, about how people get to the existing train stations and also the train stations that are proposed under the metro scheme. And promoting walking and cycling to transport hubs must be in the discussion, and high up in the discussion. We've got to keep it right there, in the front, and it’s vital that there are bike parking facilities at all stations, which is not currently the case, of course.

This is especially important, as we know that the number of short journeys under 1 mile taken by car are increasing. The latest statistics for active travel show that only 5 per cent of adults cycled at least one or twice a week, 61 per cent of adults walked at least once or twice a week, and people in urban areas are more likely to walk three or more times a week, compared to those in rural areas. I think there is a particular issue about rural areas, which has been raised. So, I think it's really important that we invest in walking infrastructure as well as cycle lanes.

I am organising an event in my constituency in January to promote cycling for short journeys—commuting to work, going to the shops and doing the school run. We are going to have talks about getting on your bike, and particularly to encourage older people and more women to cycle, because we need to tackle people's very real worries about cycling in traffic, and we will be giving them practical help to do things like fixing a puncture or advising them about cycling in the dark. We'll also be talking about electric bikes, because I think it's very important that we do promote cycling for these short journeys, and we want to make sure that cycling doesn't become the preserve of, as has been quoted to me, middle-aged men in lycra. We want it to be for all the community, and we want everybody, particularly women, to get more involved in cycling. Diolch.