Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 2:29 pm on 7 March 2018.
Well, first of all we're awaiting, or I'm awaiting, full evaluation of the two bids for the franchise and the metro development. It would be premature for me to identify which projects are going to be taken forward and in what form within the next Wales and borders franchise and the development of the metro until the award has been made. But I would say, with regard to the tender process, yes, this is a unique process, one that has not been conducted anywhere else in the UK, but I think as Sion Barry in the Western Mail identified just a few weeks ago, we made the right call in making sure that four bidders remained in the race. There were calls for us to whittle the number of bidders down to two. I think it would have been somewhat embarrassing if that had taken place and then for Arriva and Abellio to have been those final two, and then for Arriva to withdraw and Abellio to have pulled out. But the fact remains that we have two world-class bids that are being evaluated at the moment. They've been strenuously tested, and we are on course to award the next franchise by May of this year.