8. Welsh Conservatives Debate: The transport network

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:45 pm on 22 June 2022.

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Photo of Rhianon Passmore Rhianon Passmore Labour 4:45, 22 June 2022

Thank you. I think the very simple response to that is, firstly, you sit around the table together. The second response to that is that the Government has a duty of care to its people on safety and on transport, and they need to get their act together. That same workforce also kept our economy and hospitals alive during COVID. There is a disregard for them. 

Point 2 of the amendment tabled by Lesley Griffiths states that we need the UK Government to provide adequate funding to Wales for investment in the public transport network. We all know that British Rail was a disastrous privatisation, surely, by the John Major Tory UK Government, desperate to continue the ideological dogma of the Thatcher years. As another former Tory Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, said of privatisation, 'They sold off the family silver.' I suggest that your Government is also selling off the toilet rolls. 

Speaking to rail workers yesterday, including RMT Cardiff branch secretary, Trevor Keane, it was really evident how positive rail workers were for the actions and the policies of this Welsh Government to transform rail services in Wales as far as the powers we hold enable us to do so. 

In my constituency of Islwyn, I see the Welsh Labour Government action with the fantastic success of the Ebbw Vale to Cardiff passenger line, which serves the communities of Newbridge, Crosskeys, Risca and Pontymister, because that is indeed one of the transport success stories of Welsh devolution. Last December saw the introduction of an hourly service to the Gwent city of Newport, and now the line is undergoing a £70 million upgrade, with the dualling of the tracks and the installation of new platforms and the upgrade—[Interruption.] I'm sorry, I won't now. And the upgrading of the signal system. The Welsh Labour Government has shown in Islwyn its commitment to the railways and the Valleys communities, and it is just a joy to see the new Transport for Wales livery and the emergence of upgraded and new rolling stock for the Welsh public after decades of disinvestment from the infrastructure fund from the UK to the old Wales network.

Llywydd, I'm confident that the Welsh Government, in its bus White Paper, will tackle that other unedifying legacy of the Thatcher years, the near destruction of municipal bus companies, all at the altar of a far-right ideology. The Tories—[Interruption.] The Tories have inflicted much harm on Wales through the centuries and continue to do so with their policies that place profit before people. In south Wales, we have a railway network primarily of Victorian construction, built to service the heavy industries of coal and steel, and the Welsh Government, with the powers it possesses, is seeking to build an innovative and exciting twenty-first century passenger network that befits the Welsh people.

Finally, the UK Government, as my colleague to my left has stated, would not even electrify the main railway line to Swansea, and have failed to do so repeatedly since. That is how little the people of Wales mean to this UK Tory Government. Welsh Labour will stand up for Welsh passengers and stand up for Welsh workers, and will stand up for the men and women who commit to serving on our public transport system, and I want to say thank you to them as well.