Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:34 pm on 17 November 2020.
Thank you. I agree with Alun Davies that those are the tests, and I welcome his challenge to make sure that Government meet those tests, because unless we can meet those tests, then public transport will not be a realistic alternative to the car, and, on that basis, our vision and our strategy will fail. So, I completely agree with the aspiration there. Of course, operationalising that within a fragmented, privately owned transport system has been what has devilled us to date, which is why we do need to address the regulation, as he says, and we do need to address the co-ordination. Now, I think the creation of corporate joint committees will help that. I think giving Transport for Wales a greater role as the co-ordinating mind behind our public transport system will address that, as well as creating the capability and the capacity of professionals who are able to operate the networks and plan them and co-ordinate them in that way will be essential to achieving that, too.
As well as embracing innovations. Alun Davies will know from chairing the Valleys taskforce the aspiration to have a demand-responsive bus service in Blaenau Gwent and in other places that is able to move beyond the timetabled service towards one that responds to consumer demand. And I'm pleased to say, from that work that he began, we now have the flexi service being piloted in five, I think, communities across Wales, coming soon to Blaenau Gwent. It's currently being trialled in Newport and proving very successful. So, I think that partly answers his test about how to get from different places in a flexible way by changing our concept of what buses are and what they look like. And I certainly think that there's much more that we can do about that.
His point on rail is well made, and this is where the UK Government really does need to play its part. I said in the statement that we want to constructively engage with the UK Government. The Burns report, coming out next week, as we know from its teasers, is going to focus heavily on rail as a solution to congestion around Newport, and that is going to require the UK Government to step up to the plate in a way it hasn't done on the electrification and it hasn't done on overall rail investment. We've seen HS2 pursued to the negative effect on the Welsh economy, and we need to make sure that we do get our share of rail investment to enable us to achieve our ambitions.