5. Statement by the Minister for Economy and Transport: The Global Centre of Rail Excellence in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:44 pm on 21 May 2019.

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Photo of Mark Reckless Mark Reckless Conservative 4:44, 21 May 2019

I add to the cross-party support and, indeed, enthusiasm and excitement for this project. Could I ask the Minister to be a little clearer about who's driving this forward? We have this joint venture with Welsh Government and the two local councils, which is very positive. You mentioned just now presenting the planning application—can I infer from that that it will be the joint venture that will be making that planning application? Who in the sector is involved? It's great to hear that they'll be funding it, but, when the Minister speaks of the sector, I don't know whether that's Network Rail, Transport for Wales, a train operating company, or others who are associated with it. What type of player does he expect to be paying for this? And also—and, with respect to this one, I entirely understand if commercial sensitivity prevents him from saying everything that he may know, but what is the role of the current landowner, I think Celtic Energy? Do you expect them to remain a long-term partner in the project, or is it likely that, at some point, someone else will take over ownership of the land and be taking this forward?

Finally, you say there's a testing facility in Germany currently, but we don't have anything like this in the UK. To the extent that testing is needed, I assume that some of that has been happening in Germany that might otherwise happen in the UK, but is it also the case that some testing now needs to happen on live lines that could otherwise be happening on this 7 km track, and will we at least in the margin be able to look forward to a few less engineering disruptions when we have this facility, if it comes to pass?