Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:33 pm on 5 June 2018.
Okay. Diolch. Just before the recess, you announced the winner of the new Wales and Borders rail franchise, and it's already been pointed out that you have broken a manifesto commitment for a not-for-profit railway company. But it also seems now that you're privatising the infrastructure from the core Valleys lines as well, and that's a real concern after what happened the last time that the Conservatives privatised rail—in particular, we had the Hatfield disaster, which led to private companies running Railtrack and being abandoned, and the creation of Network Rail as a public body. So, what I'd like to know is whether you've had permission from Network Rail to privatise this infrastructure, and the real question really is: why can't it be kept in public ownership, and what will happen to the 1,600 people that Network Rail directly employs in Wales? Will your Labour Government be transferring these to the private multinational corporations?