7. Will the First Minister outline the Welsh Government's priorities for improving transport? OAQ54655

I thank the Member for that question. The Welsh Government's priorities include the promotion of active travel, investment in public transport, and a transport infrastructure that supports prosperity and accessibility for all.

Thank you for the answer, First Minister. The Department of Transport projects that traffic along the M4 in Wales is set to increase by nearly 38 per cent over the next 30 years. In 2015, accident rates on some sections of motorway were still above the national average in spite of introducing variable speed cameras on some dangerous spots on the M4. Some sections of the M4 have alignments that are below current motorway standards, lack a hard shoulder, and have frequent junctions, causing vehicles to change lanes over relatively short distances. First Minister, you and your Government haven't fulfilled its commitment of its manifesto for the last election for the relief road. When will you take the action required to improve the safety and congestion on the M4, please?

Well, given what he said, the Member will be pleased, Llywydd, to welcome the additional traffic officers who are already working on the M4 in the Newport area, reducing the response time to accidents from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. He will be glad to welcome the free recovery service, which we instituted over the summer, in an informal arrangement at that time with Gwent Police, but which is now solidified into a plan for high-visibility patrols of heavy recovery capacity for major events and bank holidays and so on. He'll be glad to know that there is journey-time variable message signing now completed and utilised between junction 23 and junction 29, and that we are making much greater use of social media to make sure that drivers are aware of issues on the network and the need to take action to avoid those accidents that can cause delays to others.

As we heard earlier, First Minister, after 31 December, we could lose the Pacer trains from the Valleys lines. Now, losing the Pacers would normally be a cause for celebration, because they're so old and so awful, but, because of the lack of planning from yourselves, we face an unprecedented reduction in rail services overnight. Earlier on, you blamed private companies, yet you were warned about this six years ago. And the report from 2013 called on the Welsh Government—not on private companies, but on yourselves—to develop and publish a rolling stock strategy as a matter of urgency. That recommendation was not acted upon and angry passengers, including myself, will want to know why. We cannot accept an even poorer service than we have now. My train was cancelled just this morning, and this is occurring more and more regularly. First Minister, what is your plan B if you can't use Pacers after 31 December?

Well, as I explained in my earlier answer, Llywydd, we want to lose the Pacer trains from the network and would have been able to have done that had the companies who had contracted to supply new rolling stock to the Welsh network delivered on the promises that they made. That is not a failure of the Welsh Government. Those orders had been placed, those plans had been made, but the companies, having contracted to deliver the rolling stock, have now failed to do that. We remain in conversations, as I said, with the Department for Transport, to go on using Pacer trains in the short run until that new rolling stock does become available. But it has never been the long-term plan of Transport for Wales or the Government to go on relying on Pacer trains far into the future.