5. Statement by the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales: Future of Rail — Details of the new arrangements

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:11 pm on 3 November 2020.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 5:11, 3 November 2020

Can I thank David Rowlands for his questions and again for his support for the decisions taken by the Welsh Government? I really do welcome his comments, and I would agree with David Rowlands that 2,500 people feel far more secure now in their jobs, and we look forward to working with those dedicated and committed members of staff in improving services across the Wales and borders areas in the years to come. 

In terms of the upgrade to infrastructure, and principally to the metro programme, well, work started on the metro transformation over the summer and it will continue as planned, uninterrupted by these changes. There will be no effect in terms of the new operating model; we will proceed as planned. But it should also be said, Llywydd, that that might not have been the case had we experienced an unmanaged exit from the contract, had we seen a catastrophic collapse. Then, we would, I am absolutely certain, have seen a significant delay in the delivery of the metro upgrades, and that, of course, would have had implications; it would have had challenges in terms of the draw-down of European funds. So, this isn't just a necessary step to provide the security for workers and for customers; this is also a necessary step to secure the metro and the time frame for delivering the metro. 

In terms of the delivery of improvements and the delivery of the infrastructure that David Rowlands has questioned whether I'm confident that we have the expertise, that we have the capacity and the capability to be able to do that, well, the beauty of what we've been able to agree with Keolis and with Amey is that whilst we'll be taking the operation and management of rail services into public control, we are still going to be retaining their expertise in terms of being able to deliver the metro and to be able to deliver improvements in rail services, and as I've already said, in terms of integration and in terms of establishing a fairer and integrated fare regime.