Disruption to Rail Services

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:31 pm on 15 June 2022.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:31, 15 June 2022

Thank you very much for those remarks. I agree with all of them, really. The big issue for us is how to calibrate the change in modal shift that we are seeking to do, and to shift investment away from support for the car, which is a culturally ingrained concept for all of us. We've had this culturally ingrained in us since the middle of the twentieth century, and in a raft of legislation that went through in the mid 1980s, deregulating buses, and so on—an absolutely catastrophic economic model, which has clearly failed across the country. As my colleague Lee Waters said in committee this morning, it's not at all a surprise that Transport for London works—it wasn't deregulated. And it shows that you need a regulated, joined-up service, with a public service ethos and not a commercial profit ethos, to make those things happen. So, we have a journey to get there, we need to take people with us, we need to make it easier and easier for people to do the right thing and not do the wrong thing.

In response to Rhun on the last question as well, we need to work hard to ensure connectivity all over Wales—north to south, of course, west to east, of course; people in my constituency, in Swansea, have real serious issues with getting to events, and so on. We need to make sure that we do get people out of their cars, onto public transport, and, where possible, locally, into active travel routes. TfW, for the events at the weekend, have been appealing to people who could get there by active travel to do so, and for people to just be sensible about how long it will take for things to happen. As I say, I love an international match myself, it's one of my favourite things to do, but you factor into the equation how long it's going to take you to get there and park and get in, and how long it's going to take you to get out. Because we know that cities, especially if there's a stadium right in the middle, have issues with the peak right at the end of the concert. It's not unique to Cardiff or Wales, that happens all over the world, and if you're sensible, you regard it as part of the experience. And that's not to take away from the fact that we are not satisfied with the passenger experience and the overcrowding—of course we are not. We have a range of measures in place, and it will take a little time to bed in to make those things possible.