Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:47 pm on 24 October 2018.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 1:47, 24 October 2018

Well, there are a number of short-term measures that we continue to look at. There are a number of short-term measures that we are already implementing. I think that the additional resource that has been allocated for active travel will improve the availability of safe active travel opportunities within Newport itself, taking traffic from the motorway that doesn't need to be on the motorway, given the substantial number of vehicles using the motorway simply to get from one side of Newport to the other.

Bus reforms and legislation on the bus network will help us to improve the provision of local bus services right across Wales, including in the Newport area, and those reforms will be outlined very soon. So, it's my hope that, through considerable and radical reform of local bus services across the country, we'll be able to encourage more people out of their private vehicles and onto buses, particularly in the more urban areas. 

Funding through the local transport fund can be utilised for creating designated bus and taxi routes, again making the provision and the use of bus services more attractive to people who perhaps would otherwise travel by car, and I'm also keen to go on working with schools and education colleagues in encouraging young people to take part in active travel journeys rather than using private vehicles for the purpose of getting to and from schools and colleges and universities.

In terms of the road network itself, of course we have looked at and implemented variable speed limits in order to ensure that there is a constant flow of traffic, and these improvements have been particularly successful on the M4. It's an intervention that I think motorists value. I think that at the outset perhaps some motorists thought that we were reducing speed limits in order to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. Actually, what it was designed to do was to ensure that there is greater consistency in the way that people were driving and that you didn't have stop-start motion on the motorway. So, all of these measures that have already been implemented and that will be implemented will contribute, I hope and believe, to a reduction in journey times.