Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:30 pm on 21 March 2023.
Diolch yn fawr, Brif Weinidog. I don't want to dwell on the great train robbery that is HS2 for Wales, and I don't want to dwell on the comments of Keir Starmer at Llandudno recently, when he refused to commit to giving Wales its fair share of HS2. I don't expect you, Prif Weinidog, to write the next UK manifesto—albeit I'm sure it would be much better if your thumbprints were on it than some UK Labour members—but I want to concentrate on where extra funding could be of assistance, where it would make a huge difference. Transport expert, Mark Barry, has called the Cardiff West junction in Canton a 'bottleneck'. To unblock that bottleneck would enable four trains an hour on the city line. That would transform the rail network in the capital and increase connectivity with the Valleys to no end. Would you, then, commit, Prif Weinidog, to writing to Network Rail and to the UK transport Minister to unblock that junction, and perhaps the leader of the opposition might do the same? Diolch yn fawr.