Transport for Wales rail services described as “being rewarded for underachievement”

Welsh Government’s increased funding of rail services has come under the microscope as part of scrutiny of the wider budget.

Plaid Cymru Delyth Jewell MS was speaking in the Senedd on Tuesday, contrasting Welsh Government budget cuts against increase in spending for TfW.

The MS said: “In the six months between last October and April this year, Transport for Wales rail services will have received an additional £236 million from the Government.

“That is an amount equivalent to almost all of the £245 million in funding cuts that have been made across almost all policy areas as part of this budget.

“I’m a person who supports spending on public transport, greatly. But I’m also keen to see Transport for Wales justify these high levels of spending because, on almost every performance metric, it seems that Transport for Wales is being rewarded for underachievement.

“It has received the lowest levels of satisfaction in the most recent surveys undertaken by Transport Focus. Its trains are only on time 60 per cent of the time, it has some of the highest cancellation rates in these isles, and vehicle overloading is an ongoing problem.

“And, of course, we recently found that only 29 per cent of the journeys take place on new trains, despite the fact that there was a target of 95 per cent by the end of 2023.

“When we asked the Government for an explanation regarding the additional funding of £125 million at the time that had been set aside for TfW in October, the Government said that this was supposed to make up for losses in ticket sales.

“I understand and I think everyone understands that COVID has had a staggering impact—that was inevitable—but almost two years since doing away with the last set of COVID restrictions, passenger numbers still haven’t reached the point where this additional extra support from the Government is not needed.

Jewell contrasted the situation across the UK, “As the Wales Governance Centre has revealed, there are four major UK train operators that have already been able to exceed their pre-COVID passenger numbers.”

“I’m asking this because I want to know, sincerely, if they can do it, what the barriers are preventing TfW from doing the same.

“I think part of the issue here is that the projections of revenue from ticket sales we had in Wales—they were based on the KeolisAmey bid in 2018.

“They’ve been described in the Welsh Government’s own narrative on the budget as ‘ambitious’.

“When we submitted a Freedom of Information request for the relevant information that underpinned these projections, we were told the Welsh Government doesn’t currently hold that information, and that is rather troubling, given how profoundly it’s effected the wider state of the budget.

“I’d ask, in the interest of transparency, if the Government will commit to acquiring that information that led to those projections, publishing that information as soon as possible, and I’d furthermore ask if the Government could explain why the funding arrangements for TfW were based on these ambitious projections.

“Where there more conservative estimates supplied as part of the KeolisAmey bid in 2018? And if there were, why where those discounted?”

Due to the nature of the debate where multiple questions and points were asked, there was no specific answers given.

However Finance Minister Rebecca Evans did note future times when such points could get addressed.

She said: “We have so much opportunity for scrutiny. We’ve got our debate that we have every year in July.

“We’ve got today’s debate, another debate in February, the debate on the final budget again coming up.

“So, there is a huge opportunity for scrutiny, and we absolutely relish that opportunity to explain to colleagues our plans and have that scrutiny. “