, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Local Government’s Progress towards Net Zero
So, I'd be grateful if you could give me that information.
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Local Government’s Progress towards Net Zero
Thank you very much for your statement. It's very useful to have this information, because I didn't know about these annual emissions monitoring reports. I'm trying to find them on the system; if I can't, I'll come back to you. There's no room for…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Only this week, we've been reminded about the impact of insecticides from crops that are routinely spread and cause a reduction in the sperm count of men, and this obviously increases the demand from families who need the intervention of fertility services…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Just focusing on today's problems, in the meantime, and how well you're going to be able to work with corporate joint committees to maintain bus services when we know that the post-COVID funding is coming to an end, and we've already seen bus services just…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Okay, fine. Thank you.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Okay. And there's nothing likely to be announced in a couple of hours' time, so we're just waiting for the next Government. Is that right?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Okay. But this is what people who represent Newport and Blaenau Gwent, and all that, they're desperate for these lines to enable people to commute into Cardiff or out to wherever, using rail services, so—
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
But the south Wales main line—. Those four lines are the spine of the south Wales metro.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
So, given the restraints on Network Rail's budgets, this is what I ask them every time I meet them, along with Transport for Wales: is there any light at the end of this particular tunnel?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Okay. I just want to take us back to the spine of the south Wales metro, which is these four lines that run east from Cardiff.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Okay. This is important, but I think we could cover this in—
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Perhaps we can have correspondence on the detail of that.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Thank you. I'll just to come back to the south Wales metro and the £306 million shortfall in what it's estimated to now cost. We can't do much about inflation, COVID and Brexit in this room—that's 70 per cent plus—so, just focusing on the 29 per cent that's…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Thank you. I want to look at the three metros. First of all, we heard last week, from the stakeholders, that the north Wales and south Wales metros are largely just a concept, and I wonder if you'd just like to comment briefly on that.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
So how are you going to increase commercial revenue?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Can you just explain how the £125 million extra funding that the Welsh Government has put into TfW, which, obviously, is taken away from other budgets—? How do you justify that, given that we obviously already provide lots of money for rail?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Okay. We'll have to move on, I think—
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
I think that's obviously relevant when you're talking to the Welsh Affairs Committee, because Network Rail's budget, would you agree, is simply insufficient for the struggling infrastructure that we have in this country.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Okay. Thank you for that. I think we probably haven't got time to go further into that. I want to pick up, though, the comments you made when you appeared before the Welsh Affairs Committee in July about whether or not you have confidence in Network Rail…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Just like people. [Laughter.]
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Related to this, when we talked to stakeholders last week, they said that they thought because you were new operators you hadn't realised that new trains will always have teething problems and that you thought the minute they came out of the factory, you'd be…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Hallelujah. We—
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Thank you. I wonder if you could just tell us a bit more about the implications of your timetable review, which is December 2023. You've already spoken about the need to stop competition between bus and rail on the same route, but I wonder if you could just…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Yes, I'm very pleased to see you're focusing on the number of female train drivers, because obviously, when you're talking to children, they think about people who drive trains or drive buses, and I wonder if you could speak not just about the success of that…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Transport for Wales
Is there a reason why the sickness rate across the industry seems to be so much poorer than pre COVID?
