Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 2:10 pm on 22 January 2020.
Obviously, with the climate emergency that is facing us, we all understand the need to rapidly decarbonise our travel. The white paper that Cardiff Council has produced, looking at travel around the city, is clearly part of that agenda. But I'd like to associate myself with some of the comments raised by some of my other Labour backbench colleagues from the south Wales Valleys. My concern is that this cannot, if it goes ahead, be a tax on some of the most challenged communities around Cardiff where, currently, public transport is not effective in getting people into the city and to their place of work. Even when the metro is fully up and running, Minister, I am concerned that the statistics show that there will still be a huge volume of people who need to use their cars to get into the city—unless, of course, we can crack the problem of bus travel. So, I'd like to know your views about, in particular, the mention in the white paper of the regional express bus project and how bus travel might be a crucial part of this agenda moving forward.