Diolch, Llywydd. In May, I set out my ambitions for the Great Western and north Wales main lines, and announced that Professor Mark Barry would be leading the development of the case for investment in rail infrastructure in Wales, against the backdrop of the UK Government’s £50 billion investment in HS2. I continue to support HS2, and call once again on the UK Government to make the right choices for the Crewe hub, and for service patterns to be designed to benefit north Wales. I also continue to exert pressure on the UK Government to mitigate the probable impact of HS2 on south Wales, to ensure that the region and its economy continues to remain competitive as HS2 is constructed and completed. In May, I also set out my expectation that, following the UK Government’s announcements on the cancellation of electrification and the development of rail enhancement schemes across Wales, development and delivery of those improvements need to happen at pace. I'd like to update members on the significant progress that has been made since then by the Welsh Government and Transport for Wales, working with Professor Barry, which will inform the work being undertaken by the UK Government. I will also set out the needs of Welsh travellers for those rail franchises operated in Wales by the UK Government.

The initial findings of this work are stark. Wales has not received an equitable share of UK rail investment over a sustained period and, as a result, has been denied the economic benefits enjoyed elsewhere in the UK. Investment in the railways in Wales is proportionately very much lower than in England. Network Rail’s Wales route, which makes up 11 per cent of the UK network, has received little more than 1 per cent of total spend on enhancements. This has resulted in low lines speed on the south Wales main line, capacity and speed constraints along the north Wales coast, infrequent commuter services for the Swansea bay city region, and inadequate cross-border services in both north and south Wales. Using old and inefficient infrastructure constrains the number and speed of services. Manual Victorian signalling still operating on parts of the network means that the opportunity to operate additional services efficiently is limited. The reduction in scope of the recent resignalling works undertaken in north Wales exemplifies the investment issues that we face.

The significant number of level crossings on the main line in south Wales impacts on journey times by rail, increases safety risks and bring the roads in the communities along the railway line to a standstill over 200 times each day. These constraints dampen demand, constrain economic growth, and increase costs to passengers and taxpayers. It's clear that our ambition should be to see improvements that allow journey times of less than one hour between the main centres of Holyhead and Chester, and Llandudno and Crewe, 90 minutes between Cardiff and London Paddington, 30 minutes between Swansea and Cardiff, and 30 minutes also between Cardiff and Bristol. Wrexham to Bidston services should be better integrated with Merseyrail services and enable direct connections between Wrexham and Liverpool to form the spine of the north Wales metro. In south-west Wales, I want to explore further with local stakeholders options for additional services and stations to support the Swansea bay metro and efficient interurban services. The work undertaken by Professor Barry to date has identified direct transport user benefits of at least £2 billion. These benefits are generated by reducing journey times for rail passengers, with significant benefits to business users. Additional benefits also arise from reduced road congestion, environmental benefits and safety improvements through reductions in car use.