Now, I've already developed our vision for bus and community transport against a background of future trend predictions for Wales, which foresee a significant growth in the number of single-person households with private vehicles remaining the dominant mode of transport for those who can afford it. But we will need, at the same time, a significant change, whether through a modal shift to public transport or to electric private vehicles if we're to deliver on our obligations and commitments to ensure sustainability for future generations. So, action is therefore clearly required to harness the unique quality of buses and their ability to quickly respond to change with lower levels of investment required than other forms of public transport, particularly lower levels of investment required in infrastructure to support bus services. They also offer a relatively low cost per passenger and a low carbon footprint. But to achieve the vision that I've already outlined and that Mark Reckless has pointed to, we need a mix of, I believe, place-based interventions, including, for example, better bus stops, better passenger journey information and those hubs, those interchanges that I talked of, so that we get true integrated public transport system that offers reliability, comfort and punctuality for passengers.

Bus priority measures are hugely important and Mark Reckless has identified the need for bus services to operate in a timely and reliable fashion. We have found that the number one reason that determines whether somebody chooses to take a bus or their car is whether a bus is reliable and punctual and offers the ability to get to their destination in less time than their private motor vehicle. And, so, to this end, we are investing very heavily indeed in dedicated bus lanes and in bus corridors and we're piloting demand-responsive transport schemes. Mark Reckless has identified the scheme that will be rolled out in Blaenau Gwent—that's the south-east Wales pilot. I know that Transport for Wales is engaging with the local authority and with bus operators to finalise the scope of the pilot, but consideration will be given to extending this particular scheme into Torfaen.

Mark Reckless asked the question of whether such pilots—demand-responsive pilots—will likely lead to people who have previously relied on their car to actually leave the keys at home and use those new innovative services. Now, where we've seen similar schemes operating in the UK, we've been able to appreciate that there has been a significant modal shift. I recently attended the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee and I pointed to one specific scheme in south Liverpool that has seen that around 52 to 53 per cent of users of that demand-responsive bus service actually were people who have never used the bus service in that area before; they are leaving their cars at home. So, it does offer great potential to increase patronage very significantly across the bus network.

The question was raised about why we now have a plateau in terms of patronage, and our understanding is that there are numerous factors that determine whether people choose to take the bus rather than to drive, and principally, it's about reliability. Well, we've been investing very heavily in bus corridors in key urban areas in the past few years. We also, in the aftermath of the collapse of a very prominent bus company back in 2016, introduced a stabilisation plan for the industry with a number of actions that were taken forward. And, so, as a consequence of the quite intense work that's been undertaken, not just by Welsh Government but by local authorities as well across Wales, we've been able to stabilise the number of people that are using bus services across Wales. But if we really want to fuel the renaissance of the bus industry and to lift bus patronage back to where it used to be and, even further, to levels elsewhere in the UK, we have to take action in the form of legislation. And I intend to introduce the buses Bill before the Assembly next year, in order to address directly what has been an utter disaster in the form of deregulation for bus services. That took place in 1986, and I don't think anybody would argue that it has been beneficial, in entirety, for passengers across the country. 

It will offer a suite of tools, and it will enable local authorities to intervene, should they choose to do so, in the provision of bus services. And to the question regarding the franchise system, the corporate joint committees will be designed to ensure that transport planning is undertaken on a cross-border basis and on a regional basis, and they are also intended to build capabilities and capacity across local authorities in each of the regions where the CJCs will operate. 

I believe that bus reform cannot be seen in isolation, and the next step is to weigh and measure how far we go with our agenda to facilitate a modal shift to public transport. And we will need political and financial buy-in across Government and beyond. We're going to need the public; we're going to need Government operators and politicians to work with us to make our vision of a modern, low-carbon public transport network a reality, and I'm glad that we've had this opportunity today to cover a vitally important issue for many, many people across all of our constituencies. The Member, Mark Reckless, has raised a number of significant issues in the Chamber. I'll gladly update him on each of the areas that I'm not able to respond to in the time that I've got. But, again, I'd like to thank Mark Reckless and Members for showing such a keen interest in this particular subject matter.