Swansea Bay and Western Valleys Metro

Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 12:02 pm on 15 July 2020.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 12:02, 15 July 2020

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.