4. What progress is being made to improve Welsh rail services over the next five years? OAQ53445

I thank the Member for that question. Over the next five years, Welsh rail services will see improved and additional services, new and better trains, wide-ranging station upgrades, ticketing and information improvements and increased parking and interchange facilities for passengers.

I thank the First Minister for that answer. Unlike the UK Government, which reneged on a promise to electrify the south Wales main line to Swansea and who have delivered a paltry 1 per cent of UK rail infrastructure funding to Wales, Welsh Labour has invested in our rail network. First Minister, could you tell me what improvements that passengers can expect to see over the next two years?

I thank the Member for that question and for the work, of course, that he did in ensuring that we are in a position to bring about these improvements here in Wales. Over the next couple of years, Transport for Wales will introduce additional rolling stock. In this year, those additional trains will be used to relieve crowding and to introduce new services. That will be a precursor to new trains that we will be introducing over the next couple of years. We will act to make sure that the physical facilities at our stations are improved in this calendar year by an enhanced deep-cleaning programme in place throughout Wales. From December of this year, there will be a 22 per cent increase in Sunday mileage and additional services for passengers on those days. There will be work done to make sure that passengers are better informed about the services that are being provided. We are dealing with a new ticketing regime that will see 3,000 new advance fares to reduce the cost of travel for long-distance journeys. These are just some of the things that we will be doing here in Wales to make sure that people in Wales have a service that they deserve and will be proud of into the future. 

First Minister, you'll be aware that Carno residents have been campaigning for a new station in Carno for many years. They have been frustrated that the stage 2 appraisal process did seem to take longer than was expected, but I'm grateful to Helen Mary Jones, who asked your colleague a question last week, to know that that stage 2 process is indeed coming to an end and stage 3 is about to begin. Now, I do understand that there is already a commitment to take forward two new stations in north Wales, at Deeside and in Wrexham, but can you confirm how that fits into this three-stage process when the third stage hasn't yet begun? Can you confirm that the Welsh Government's appraisal process for new station development is a fair process?

Well, the WelTAG process, Llywydd, is a fair process. It is, as the Member says, a three-stage process in which proposals for new initiatives have to be tested through the different stages. The Carno station appraisal is coming towards the end of stage 2. Our ability to take forward proposals at stage 3 is dependent upon us having the resources in order to do so, and there are, as ever in this area—as the others we have discussed this afternoon—places where we would like to be able to do more and where we would do more, provided the funding comes to Wales in order to allow us to do so. 

On my five-hour journey from Bangor to Cardiff yesterday evening, I looked at a map of the Welsh rail network and it reminded me that this isn't a network created for Wales, if truth be told. We need investment in expanding the network in order to connect Wales. We need to invest across the west coast line of Wales. But investment in the rail network is expensive, of course. We need to think carefully about those investments. But there is one investment that we could make immediately, a relatively small investment, which would enhance the network, and that is to reopen the line already there between Gaerwen and Amlwch in the north of Anglesey. Does the First Minister agree with me that we should make progress with that as a matter of urgency now, particularly given the economic circumstances facing that part of Anglesey?

Well, thank you very much to the Member for the question. I can confirm that the example that he has referred to is part of the programme that we're working on at the moment. In general, of course, what Rhun ap Iorwerth says is true: the system that we have at the moment isn't one that was devised for the needs that we have in Wales, but now, with some of the responsibilities that are now in our hands, we can do more to prepare for the needs of the future.