Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:50 pm on 22 October 2019.
Well, the reasons why Pacer trains have to retained into 2020 here in Wales are the same reasons why they have to be retained on the northern franchise as well, because of the failure of train manufacturing companies to honour the contract signed with them, where we would have had those new trains already here in Wales and ready to go onto the network. They haven't arrived, despite signing contracts to say that they could be delivered, and Pacer trains will need to continue for a short while longer, until that capacity arrives.
What Transport for Wales is about to do is to announce plans to improve fares across their entire network from January 2020. Parts of that have been announced already, Llywydd, as you know—extending free travel to under-11-year-olds, under-16s being able to travel off-peak free when accompanied by an adult, and extending half-price fares to 18-year-olds down to 16 to 17-year-olds as well. But that will come with additional reductions in fares in parts of the network when Transport for Wales makes its January announcement, and that will be some compensation for people who were promised by private providers that those trains would arrive and where those promises have not been kept by them.