Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:30 pm on 23 November 2021.
Diolch. First Minister, in a climate crisis, we need to be empowering our residents to use public transport. Now, whilst we have seen some progress in reaching rural communities through the Conwy valley Fflecsi bus service as you mentioned, the reality is though that some communities in the Conwy valley are cut off from the coast at night. The last train leaves at 16:07 and the last bus at 18:34, and there are constituents now having to face the dilemma of paying high, costly taxi fees. There's also an even greater chance now that tourists are driving themselves to Snowdonia National Park, and we're all working on initiatives there to try and cut down on the use of private cars, rather using public transport. So, our railway line is one of the best short-term solutions.
Would you, First Minister, work with Transport for Wales to see if evening services could be scheduled between Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog, and, also, would you look to amend the north Wales metro programme so to include a direct rail service between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Manchester Airport, that would really go some way to solving some of the public transport issues we have in Aberconwy? Diolch.