First Minister: Current rail service offered by Transport for Wales is not acceptable

The First Minister has said Keir Starmer is ‘in no doubt’ over a view that “HS2 is not a scheme that benefits Wales” and thus should have returned a Barnett consequential.

The topic came up in response to questions from Rhun ap Iorwerth MS, who detailed his own travel woes, stating he had ‘not seen Bangor station platform at 3 o’clock in the morning before’ due to TfW problems and asked the First Minister, “When I and others in this Senedd raise our frustrations about transport, the flood of people raising their own concerns about delays, about cancelled trains, like the couple in their eighties from my constituency recently who had to stand for two hours without access to the toilet on the train from the north to the south. Does the First Minister think that the current rail service offered by Transport for Wales is acceptable?”

The First Minister replied, “No I don’t and nor does the Minister. The Minister said very recently that the challenges facing Transport for Wales mean that the service that has been provided in some parts of Wales has not been of a standard that passengers are entitled to expect. It’s why the Deputy Minister has been meeting rail users, particularly in those places where those difficulties have been greatest, to hear directly from those passengers, and to work with them and others to improve the service that is available here in Wales.

“There are a series of reasons that lie behind the difficulties that have been experienced. Travel patterns have altered since the pandemic—that is certainly true on the railways, as it has been in bus services, as we have discussed here on the floor of the Senedd. The rail industry everywhere is having to cope with changes in passenger numbers on the one hand and reduced investment by the UK Government on the other. It’s why passengers in his part of the world, on the north Wales coast, have recently had their mainline services cut by Avanti West Coast, which itself puts additional pressure on those local services provided by Transport for Wales.”

Rhun ap Iorwerth MS came back, “I’m pleased that the First Minister admits that there is a problem—I think it’s quite obvious that there is a problem—and it was good to hear that the Deputy Minister also admits that things aren’t good enough.

“But the worry I have is that trajectory that we’re on. These are serious issues: four in 10 trains in Wales delayed, and the latest 12-month figures showing a deteriorating picture. Surely we should be able to expect that things are getting better. In April, I think, the independent watchdog Transport Focus said the situation was untenable, calling on Transport for Wales to put a robust plan in place outlining how they’ll restore services and get things back on track for passengers. When Transport for Wales, remember, took over from Arriva in 2018, they said that we would be promised a rail service transformed within five years. Now, five years is up; it has clearly not happened to that timescale. When can passengers expect to see genuine and sustained improvements in the service?”

The First Minister responded, “I don’t want to say to the Member that there will be an easy pathway to those improvements. As we’ve rehearsed on the floor of the Senedd here recently, Network Rail have published an investment prospectus that puts Wales at the very foot of the investment league and that they themselves say will lead to greater cancellations and more delays in the future as a result of a plan that they have published. That is the essential context within which Transport for Wales also operates.

“But, in sharp contrast to the lack of investment in Wales by the UK Government, we are investing over £1 billion in the transformation of the core Valleys lines in south Wales alone, with new trains on the Transport for Wales network in every part of Wales, more new trains in north Wales than in any other part of Wales, and more to come—trains built in Wales, trains being operated in Wales, and trains that will lead to a better service for passengers. But the context within which Transport for Wales operates is sharply different to the one envisaged five years ago, let alone the experience that has happened over those five years. I’m not going to stand here and say to any Member that the pathway from where we are to where we want to be will be one that can be travelled quickly.”

Rhun ap Iorwerth MS challenged the First Minister over Keir Starmer, “Taxpayers are still expected to contribute towards the high speed 2 line. That is the very definition of economic injustice. This is a rail development completely outside of Wales, but Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer seem content with that injustice. At the recent Welsh Labour conference, the Labour leader refused to commit to granting Wales its fair share of HS2 funding, should he enter No. 10. Will the First Minister use his direct line to Keir Starmer to ask why, when it comes to this basic economic fairness, he chooses to side with the Tory Government, and not the people of Wales?”

The First Minister rejected the argument, “I think it is a significant misrepresentation to conflate the positions of a Prime Minister in office, making decisions today to deny Wales the funding that Wales ought to have through the Barnett formula as a result of HS2 investment, and a government that hasn’t even been elected yet. Sir Keir Starmer will be weighing up the options that an incoming Labour government will have in front of it when it inherits the economic catastrophe that has been the record of the Conservative Government.

“He’s not going to be offering a long shopping list of all the things that he will or will not do on the day that he comes into office, and nobody should mistake that for a positive decision not to do something. All he is saying is that, at this point, with a year to go to an election, he will be having to, in a responsible way, make decisions in the context in which he will find himself.

“The view of the Welsh Labour Government and the view of the Senedd has been very plain, and it’s not just our view, as we know, it’s the view of many independent commentators far beyond this Chamber: HS2 is not a scheme that benefits Wales. There ought to have been a Barnett consequential, in the way there has been for Scotland. Keir Starmer is in no doubt at all about our position on that issue, and I will make sure that we continue to articulate it to him.”