The Cost of Rail Travel in Mid Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:37 pm on 8 May 2019.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 1:37, 8 May 2019

I'm grateful to the Minister for his answer to Russell George—it's very important, and it's useful to hear what the forward plans are. I travelled last week on the Cambrian coast line—I must say, to my shame—for the first time north of Machynlleth; I'd used the other part of the line frequently. And I was struck there by the very high number of passengers using that train for very short journeys—one or two stops—particularly school students. Can I ask the Minister to ensure that, in this review of fares, he does keep in mind, as he says he will, the need to keep fares affordable for young people, because those young people, if they weren't travelling on that train, their parents would be having to provide transport, or the county council would be having to provide road transport, which we seek to avoid, and also to ensure that regular users of services have got favourable access to season ticket arrangements, so that we can carry on encouraging our constituents to make those short journeys as well as using rail for longer travel?