Simon Thomas AM: Turning back to the Swansea bay city region
and travelling in and out of that region, we’ve concentrated a
great deal in the past few days on the rail franchise, which is in
the hands of the Welsh Government but, of course, there is still
important transport into Swansea, and Carmarthen also,
with First Great Western and companies coming into Wales,
and Network Rail still owns...Request free trial
: Turning back to the Swansea
bay city region and travelling in and out of that region,
we’ve concentrated a great deal in the past few days on
the rail franchise, which is in the hands of the Welsh
Government but, of course, there is still important
transport into Swansea, and Carmarthen also,
with First Great Western and companies
coming into Wales, and Network Rail still owns that. The
suggestion has been made by people such as Stuart Cole
that now pressure should be put on to speed trains up to
100 mph along those routes, and to make that journey from
Swansea to Cardiff, for example, a 40-minute journey. Is
that something that the Government is proceeding with in
terms of negotiations with the Westminster Government?
(Cabinet Secretary
for Economy and Transport): Yes, it
is. We've been clear that we expect to see improved
journey times between London and Cardiff, and also
between Cardiff and Swansea. It's a fact that it takes
longer today than it did in the past to get from London
to Cardiff, and therefore London to Swansea. This is
appalling, considering how much funding has been made
available over the past decade or more for the rail
network elsewhere in the UK. So, we're particularly keen
to ensure that journey times reduce, but I should just
say that we are not so keen on seeing stations bypassed
by any main line services. I think it's absolutely vital
that communities across south Wales have access to the
main line, but that, in between stations, improvements
should be made to signalling, for example, that reduce
journey times between those communities.
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