Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:17 pm on 20 October 2020.
Well, just on that last point, we are developing sophisticated forecasting and scenario-testing modelling to allow data-based judgments to be made about where to put investments and where there are gaps in provision. That is something Transport for Wales has been working on, and this is why we want to move on to a regional footing for the delivery of these services, because that gives us the greatest opportunity to have a joined-up approach and to make the most of the limited resource that we have. And involving communities in that, clearly, is important and Transport for Wales do have a cadre of community outreach professionals whose job it is to make those connections. And that's certainly something we've been hearing, through the Valleys taskforce—the need for people to feel that the system works for them. And, in too many cases, it doesn't.
I think there is—. There's a question for all Members here, because I think all of us want more—more of everything—and the public finance situation we face is grave and it's not likely to improve any time soon. We're working on a Wales transport strategy, which we're hoping to publish within the next six months, and that needs to deliver on the decarbonisation agenda that we've set out. But it also is a question for us all about where we put the resources we have between road, rail, bus and active travel. Where is the right split of spend, based on the mode that we have? Now, at the moment, the amount we spend on bus is smaller than the modal share. That is to say, if you were to divide the pie into slices of how many passengers use particular bits, and then what percentage of that pie is put to each mode, then bus is currently underserved, but rail is dramatically overserved. You know, rail is something—we all have an enthusiasm for having a modern railway system. Rail is very, very expensive and carries relatively few passengers, compared to the amount of money we put into it. Similarly, we've been spending generously on roads for many years, which has denuded other forms of transport of the investment they need to give a realistic alternative to it.
So, I think all of us, as we come to developing that transport strategy and then making budget decisions based on it, need to confront the fact that, if we want the sort of public transport system Mick Antoniw talks about, then we need to prepare to make the choices of where the resources go.