4. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport: 'Llwybr Newydd: a new Wales transport strategy'

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:25 pm on 23 March 2021.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 4:25, 23 March 2021

I think that this report is absolutely excellent. It's so coherent and fits so well with the NHS recovery plan and the 'town centre first'. So, I congratulate you on that. I just want to pick up on a couple of points, having listened carefully to what you've said with other earlier speakers. It isn't just in rural areas that people don't have a bus. There are parts, even, of my inner-city constituency that don't have any buses serving elderly people who can't walk a mile to get a bus. So, we've got quite a challenge that I presume can only be resolved once we've regulated the bus services, because otherwise, we're simply having people chasing the same cherry-picking routes. If we're thinking about building the buses we need in the future in Wales, which I completely support, would you be thinking in terms of different sizes of bus for less popular, less populated routes? And what would be the fuel that you were thinking of using for all these buses? Is it electric or is it hydrogen? It seems to me that, as part of our zero-carbon pledges, we need to be thinking now about this. And the second point I just wanted to ask you about, really, is how we are going to achieve the cultural shift required so that in an urban place like Cardiff, we have to assume that most pupils will be able to bicycle to school.