3. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport: Rail Services and the South Wales Metro

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:52 pm on 5 June 2018.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 3:52, 5 June 2018

Like colleagues on these benches, I'm very keen to celebrate all that you've managed to achieve. I think there are huge benefits from this new contract. Obviously, being able to buy our tickets on the phone and integrated ticketing so that the full journey is completed from when we go home to our destination and back again—that's all fantastic. And also being able to build our new carriages in Wales means that we can respond much more quickly when there's increased demand.

I've got one specific query. In your statement yesterday you talked about 45 per cent more seats being available going into Cardiff in the morning peak rush hour, and I just wondered if that's going to be sufficient given that we currently have 80,000 people commuting into Cardiff at the moment, which is completely unacceptable. It's going to be a much more productive use of their journey to work if they're sitting on the train composing their reports or reading their e-mails. So, I just wondered if that level of increase is sufficient given that we not only wish to see them coming in by train, but we need to see them coming by train for very good public health reasons as well.