5. A wnaiff y Gweinidog ddatganiad am ddatblygu metro Bae Abertawe a chymoedd y gorllewin? OQ55452

The Deputy Minister to respond. 

Yes, indeed. We have been funding Swansea Council, Llywydd, to develop, with the region, a package of proposals to develop a south Wales metro. We have funded that to the tune of some £2 million in the last few years, and we're now looking to accelerate that by involving Transport for Wales to take forward the next stage. 

Minister, development of a metro in Swansea bay and the western Valleys is vital in terms of reducing travel times and congestion in and around Swansea, and in terms of generating economic development in our Valleys communities. However, despite funding for a feasibility study being agreed in 2017, we have received very little in the way of Welsh Government updates on this scheme. Can you outline when you expect the feasibility study to be made public, and when you expect to make a decision on the scheme? And do you agree that it is important that light rail options in areas such as the Swansea and Amman valleys should form part of that feasibility work? 

Well, I share the Member's interest in getting this proposal accelerated. I've had a long interest in developing a Swansea bay metro and I am frustrated at the progress to date. It's one the reasons why we've asked Transport for Wales, as part of the remit letter, to take a role in developing these proposals forward. There has, as I say, been work going on within the region by the local authorities themselves, and they have developed an initial package of measures, including new long-distance and local metro rail services along the currently under-utilised Swansea district line, which would offer reduced journey times from west Wales to Swansea and Cardiff and across the border.

The new metro service would, via new rail infrastructure and a number of new stations and strategic park-and-ride sites, connect Swansea, Neath and Llanelli together better. We're also, as part of it, looking at enhancing the expanding bus services in the Swansea bay region. And I agree with Dai Lloyd that that also needs to include light rail. Clearly, the Swansea bay context is different from the central Valleys metro context, where there already is far greater rail coverage and infrastructure. And to make a metro meaningful as a turn-up-and-go service in the south-west would need to go beyond looking at heavy rail, and a mixture of light rail, bus rapid transport, active travel and bus prioritisation measures.

The impetus for the Swansea bay metro came from repeated calls in this Chamber for a transport system underpinning the city deal, and I'm pleased now that Transport for Wales is working with Welsh Government and local authorities to develop plans, particularly for that faster service to the west and south Wales.

I've made the case before that a parkway would certainly support that later aim as well as improve the opportunities for active travel and the type of rail that Dai Lloyd was talking about. I accept that this is a devolved matter, but finance from the UK Government is on the table for a parkway, so wouldn't it be sensible for Transport for Wales and the other partners to include the UK Government in—[Inaudible.]—because they are partners in the city deal, after all, rather than, perhaps, just present them with a bill at the end or claim lack of investment?

Well, I think, seeing a parkway at Felindre as an active travel measure is a bit of a stretch, Llywydd, but, certainly, as part of a broader network, it would have a benefit, and we've said that all along. What we don't want is to create a piece of infrastructure that is not linked in to a broader network. And certainly, Alun Cairns, when he was Welsh Secretary, was very keen in playing political games, in trying to present this as an attractive option, but, of course, without any of the thinking about how the services should be run. It's one thing providing funding for infrastructure, but unless you've got trains to run on it, it's pretty meaningless, and unless it links into Swansea city centre rather than bypassing the city centre and the other onward journeys, it would also make very little sense.

Now, I agree with Suzy Davies—as part of moving the conversation in the region from a city deal back to a city region, so it takes a more coherent approach rather than simply administrating a grant-funding pot, then transport does need to form of that vision. And I met, along with David T.C. Davies, the main representatives of the city deal last week.

The way the city deal has been set up by the UK Government is different from the way that the Cardiff city deal has been set up. It's about administrating a series of projects rather than taking a broader, pooled approach, which the Cardiff one has a greater flexibility for. So, we'd certainly be interested in a conversation about changing that if there was an appetite to do it. But, again, I emphasise, let's not overly focus on the city deal—that's a grant-funding mechanism—let's focus on the city region. Let's not just focus on Felindre as a park-and-ride, let's focus on a coherent, integrated network that links up all the pieces, rather than a nice little press release for one constituency the Conservative are hoping to target.