5. Debate: The Future of Wales's Railway

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:13 pm on 5 February 2019.

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Photo of Russell George Russell George Conservative 4:13, 5 February 2019

Well, it's interesting you mentioned part of that report. Of course, another part of the select committee's report that was issued in January 2017 concludes that investment in Welsh rail has been consistently mismanaged by the Welsh Government over the past decade. So, we can all be selective, can't we, on which parts of the report we want to read.

With regard to the work—as I move on now—by Professor Mark Barry, the report takes a detailed look at the long-term strategic interventions that could be made on the rail network in Wales to improve connectivity and to ultimately deliver economic benefits. I certainly think that there's much in what he says that is to be welcomed and I think is sensible. But there are no costings, of course, in his report, and the report focuses more on presenting a vision for the future of rail infrastructure in Wales rather than a realistic pathway towards that vision. I accept that that clearly needs to be fleshed out in more detail.

Of course, Deputy Presiding Officer, the fact is that the Welsh Government has many levers at its disposal, and I think the Minister started off by saying so as well. The reality is that, in many cases, the buck does stop here with the Welsh Government in relation to the state of trains in Wales. There are levers that the Welsh Government do have at its disposal in regard to passenger experience.

The Welsh Government-run Transport for Wales took over the rail services in Wales, as we know, last year. We're all aware of the huge number of cancelled trains, whilst running services have become significantly overcrowded due to the rolling stock being removed from operation. The Welsh Government handover strategy, I think, does have to be questioned in this regard. What we did see last autumn was not the transformational improvements to services that the Welsh Government promised, and neither does it represent the additional capacity or the vision of future rail services in Wales that Professor Barry describes. Responsibility, I think, for the current fiasco we saw last autumn does lay squarely with the Welsh Government, and their attempt, I think, to shuffle the blame is unacceptable in this debate today.