5. What plans does the Welsh Government have to increase the quality and availability of rail journeys in Carmarthen East and Dinefwr? OQ58747

Transport for Wales are increasing the number of rail services on the Heart of Wales line from this December from five services a day to seven. The refurbishment of the rolling stock used on this line has also recently been completed, providing an improved passenger facility.

I'm grateful to the Minister for his response. Of course, you and I will be very familiar with this line, as it travels through the middle of the town where we were educated. It provides a wonderful journey, of course, through mid Wales. But many of my constituents have been having poor experiences recently, in terms of regular delays, poor availability and poor reliability. During the past month, for example, I've been given to understand that one constituent had been left to all intents and purposes with his fellow passengers in Llanwrtyd Wells, waiting hours for an alternative bus service in place of that train. Another constituent had to cancel a holiday in Shrewsbury after a service was cancelled without notice. In addition to this, there are also problems in Ferryside with the other line, where the service travelling from Manchester to Milford Haven doesn't stop in Ferryside, although it goes through the village. So, could you have a word with Transport for Wales on both of those points?

I was grateful that the Member wrote to me about his constituents' experience of being left behind in Llanwrtyd, and I hope he got my response on that. There have been problems right across the rail system. We've been particularly struggling with the legacy fleet of trains that are, many of them, not as reliable as we'd want them to be, and that has been causing impacts on the reliability of services. We are very hopeful that the new trains—one is already operating on the Conwy valley line, another is due to come into service on the Rhymney valley line early in the new year, and then they'll be cascaded throughout the year, which I think will make a significant difference, not only to passenger comfort, but also to capacity; they'll be able to carry more passengers.

We also are promoting the Heart of Wales line through free travel for concessionary pass holders between October and March, and we are looking as well at visitor opportunities around the stations when they get there. I'm meeting with passenger groups soon to discuss further opportunities for that.

On the communication point he raises when things do go wrong, I think it is a very fair point, and we know that there have been failures that have been raised in this Chamber before, with the poor communication with passengers. I will ask Transport for Wales to write to you further about that and the issue of stopping in Ferryside to see what more can be done for what is a legitimate grievance.

I thank Adam Price for tabling this question, because it's pertinent to my constituents too in Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, who, over the last few weekends, have been hit by misery and delay as they've travelled to and from Cardiff for Wales's autumn international rugby games. 'Exhausted', 'out of ideas' and 'directionless' were the words uttered to me by a constituent—not a description of the Wales men's rugby team after their loss to Georgia, but their account of the rail services in Carmarthenshire and south Pembrokeshire. Given this, Deputy Minister, what specific options are you taking to ensure that those who live literally at the end of the line get an equal and comparable service to those in the rest of south Wales?

There were some difficulties after the Georgia match on the weekend because, again, of reliability of some of the rolling stock, and, as I say, we have got active plans now to replenish that in the coming months, which I think will make a significant difference. We are investing significantly in services, and we need that to be matched by infrastructure investment from the UK Government in the rail system. Rail infrastructure is not devolved, and as we have rehearsed in this Chamber, we are being significantly underfunded and not getting the benefits from HS2.

I was very disappointed to see the new Secretary of State for Wales, David T.C. Davies, who had championed this cause when he was Chair of the Welsh select committee, recognising the case with cross-party consensus on that committee, and I'm pleased to say, support now as well from the Conservatives in this Chamber for passing on to Wales the full Barnet consequential of the HS2 project. Sadly, as soon as he sits around the Cabinet table, where he is meant to be Wales's voice, he recants from that and makes the case for not passing it on on the basis that people in north Wales would be able to catch trains at Crewe, ignoring the fact that its own business case shows a significant harm to the south Wales economy from HS2, as well as the lack of investment that we'll have to invest in alternatives. So, I hope that we can continue to work on a cross-party basis to try and get sense in Westminster and to get the Secretary of State, both for Wales and for transport, to change their minds.

Good afternoon, Deputy Minister. I do just want to say very quickly that I recently had a very good journey with TfW, finding the ticket office staff very, very helpful. So, I know that they do work very hard, and I think it's important to put on record the achievements of many of those people. But I just want to raise another wonderful railway line, from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth, with a little diversion to Pwllheli. Now, that route is just like going through Italy, it really is. You've got the sea on one side, you go over the Mawddach estuary, you see Barmouth, you've got wonderful Pwllheli to go up to. It is a wonderful railway route, but it just doesn't have enough trains to go on it. When I lived in Welshpool and would travel to work, if I missed the 6.30 a.m. morning train, there wasn't another one until 9.00 a.m. Now, we're not asking for a lot; we're just asking for an hourly train service along the Cambrian line. So, I just wondered, Minister, if you could tell us about any plans for that to happen, and when that might be the case. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Thank you. Yes, there are particular challenges on that line, because only one of the trains that we have are able to use it. So, when there are problems with the carriages, it makes it very difficult to provide an alternative. As I say, as we cascade our new fleet of trains across the network, there will be improvements for, I think, 95 per cent of passengers and journeys, which will be a significant step ahead.

The railways are a challenge for us. They are an expensive form of public transport and carry comparatively few passengers. We have faced the judgment of investment in buses and in active travel to try and reach our modal shift targets, and, obviously, with inflation, the cost of running rail projects are also significant, as well as other delays being felt throughout the industry. So, it is a challenging situation and the progress is slow; everything takes forever, it does feel like, sometimes. We do have ambitious plans and we are implementing them, but there is scope to do far more, which is going to be harder to achieve with the cuts that we are now expecting from the UK Government. I heard the leader of the opposition say again yesterday that the Welsh budget's going to be better off as a result of the budget, completely ignoring the impact of inflation. We are going to be something like £3 billion worse off, not £1 billion better off, and that's not taking into account the £1 billion we've lost from European funds. [Interruption.] Janet Finch-Saunders gives her first heckle of the day to ask me to sell the airport. Well, a £3 billion shortfall is not going to be raised from a circa £50 million sale of an airport, and that's assuming that you can find a buyer for it.