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Transport (Wales) Bill

I have campaigned on the issue of surface access to Cardiff international airport for the past 20 years, and I am completely unaware of any proposal for a bypass. Importantly, the Bill will enable joined-up thinking on how we can tackle what is probably one of the most important transport issues affecting Wales. Its powers and provisions—the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) will support me on this issue, given his long background in campaigning for the Welsh aviation industry—will enable suitable surface access to Cardiff airport. However, the numbers will not grow in the way that I mentioned earlier if this issue is not addressed seriously and quickly. I hope that the Bill will help in that regard by bringing together all the players involved in the provision of vital access to the airport, in order to help find the quickest possible solution to this problem. I welcome the opening earlier this year of the Vale of Glamorgan railway line, which was a huge step forward not just for my constituency but for transport policy in Wales as a whole. It provides an excellent commuter run all the way from Bridgend—my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgend (Mrs. Moon) is not present—to Cardiff via Barry; and, vitally, it provides a direct link to Cardiff international airport via Rhoose Point. So people will be able to travel by train nearly all the way to what is the fastest growing regional airport in the UK, and will need to take only a short bus journey from Rhoose Point station. But with the best will and according even to the most positive predictions, that line is unlikely to carry more than 10 per cent. of all the passengers using the airport. That presents a huge problem in terms of congestion on the roads surrounding the airport and people’s ability to get to it. If that problem is not solved first, we will not be able to achieve the tasks set out in the White Paper.