2. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the role of the metro delivery partnership in delivering integrated transport for Cardiff? OAQ52083

3. What plans does the Cabinet Secretary have to develop integrated transport in Cardiff? OAQ52093

Thank you. I understand that you have given your permission for questions 2 and 3 to be grouped, Deputy Presiding Officer. 

I have, yes.

The metro development partnership will combine the resources of the public and private sectors to ensure that we drive forward a vision of creating an integrated, multimodal transport hub right in the centre of Cardiff, ensuring that there is a co-ordinated and managed approach to delivering the component projects as part of the MDP programme. 

It's good to know that the resources of the public and private are being combined, but I have a query really as to why, when we've had so much high-class development on the Central Square site, which is the site of the former bus station, it hasn't been possible to fund the bus station out of the section 106 delivery mechanisms that the council will have levered out of private developers who have benefited from being on Central Square, and why it's needed the Welsh Government to intervene with this metro delivery partnership. The buses, in the absence at the moment of trams, light rail and increased capacity on the suburban railways, are the way in which the majority of people have to get around. Being unable to understand where to get the bus to particular locations, as at the moment, is really deterring people from using buses, which, obviously, we want them to do. So, I'd be grateful if you were able to give me a date for when the bus station is going to be reopened, because it has been at least 10 years' campaigning, and that's what my constituents want to hear. 

Can I thank the Member for her question and confirm that completion is due in mid 2020-21 for this particular asset, a vitally important asset for Cardiff? It is for the council to determine how section 106 funds are spent, and my understanding is that the council is determined that improvements need to be made across the city with this particular funding. I'm more than happy to assist in facilitating a meeting between the Member and the council to better understand the projects that will be benefiting from section 106 funding. 

What plans does the Cabinet Secretary have to develop integrated transport in Cardiff?

With groupings, you can just go to your supplementary.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I very much welcomed the First Minister's answer last month to a question about the bus station—that we're seeking to provide seamless integration between trains, buses, coaches and the metro, and to provide easy access for cyclists and pedestrians. However, I understand that, in the new design for the bus station, there are actually fewer cycle spaces than in the previous one. I understand that the numbers have been scaled back from 750 spaces to 500, and that these will no longer be in the bus station itself but in a separate kiosk. So, I don't know if the Cabinet Secretary can provide more information on that and reassure us that cycling and walking are still going to be absolutely key elements of this transport interchange. 

I can most certainly assure the Member that cycling facilities will not be the cinderella aspect of any transport hubs that we develop in Wales, including this particular hub in Cardiff. Now, the design for the bus station is still being developed, and so there is time, there is an opportunity, to ensure that there are sufficient spaces for cyclists. I am absolutely committed to extending the opportunities for active travel, including cycling, and to ensuring that there are significant facilities across Wales that enable people to use bikes more. And I think, just recently, the announcement of the significant uplift in available funding for active travel programmes demonstrates our commitment to this particular agenda. 

Cabinet Secretary, I think everyone supports the roll-out of the metro system, and it seems to be that at every pinchpoint on the transport network—certainly, in South Wales Central—when a complaint or issue is raised it's referred to as, 'Well, don't worry the metro system is coming.' Can you give us a firm timeline as to when motorists and people who need transport to get into work or just get around their communities will actually start seeing some of those multimodal options that the metro system talks about, because if you drive around South Wales Central, or walk around central station or cycle around South Wales Central, all you seem to see at the moment is gridlock, and it's hugely frustrating for us as elected Members not to be able to offer the timelines—the firm timelines—that many of us want to see delivered?  

Can I thank the Member for his question? He's absolutely right—people are frustrated, and rightly so, with the lack of available public transport, not just on the railways but also in terms of local bus services. I  can confirm that there will be completion of the project in Cardiff Central in 2021. There will be completion of phase 2 of the metro project by 2023. But we're also bringing forward the projects that were originally designated as a future phase of the metro, for example park-and-ride facilities and other hubs, so that people see the delivery of the metro sooner than had originally been planned. I think it's essential that we give people more opportunities to get out of their cars, onto public transport or onto bikes, and we're doing just that. 

Elsewhere in Wales, in, for example, the north Wales metro area, I've announced recently funding to commence work on cycle ways and on integrated transport hubs in the Deeside area. Work is also under way at strategic sites right across north Wales and, indeed, on a cross-border basis into the north-west. Again, work is happening in the south-west of Wales, with Welsh Government funding work being led by the city deal partners in looking at how we could roll out a modern metro service in that region as well. 

Alongside this, we're investing very heavily through the national transport finance plan in road schemes to alleviate congestion, and we recently announced a pinchpoint scheme, which is being utilised across Wales to ensure that our trunk roads are freed up at specific points where there is currently congestion. 

The metro's been talked about for eight years. As your Labour colleagues pointed out, the Cardiff bus station is a fiasco—absolute fiasco. If you drive outside, to the west of the capital, as we predicted—and we were called liars at the time—the houses are going up, the bulldozers are in, and there's a single carriage road with another 8,000 houses going to be thrown up. What is your message to the residents of the west of the capital city? And what is your message to people who are going to buy those new houses, because they simply have no means to travel to the centre of Cardiff? What do you say to those people? 

Well, my message is this: we have intervened, because of what the Member calls a fiasco with the Cardiff bus station and, in years to come, people across Cardiff—across the whole of Cardiff—will see improvements in public transport services, not just in terms of what runs on rail lines, but also in terms of bus services through reforms to local bus services and through legislation that we'll be introducing in this term. It's absolutely essential, as I said to Andrew R.T. Davies, that people have the opportunity to get out of their private cars and onto public transport—safe, reliable public transport of the highest quality. We're going to be delivering that as well as part of the metro, and the new rail franchise, which will now be agreed and delivered from this October onward.