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Transport (Wales) Bill

My Lords, like my noble friend Lord Rowlands, I am a traveller; I can claim no other interest in the railways. I am delighted to follow my noble friends Lord Jones and Lord Rowlands, with both of whom I have served on many Welsh Grand Committees. This is rather like an old boys’ reunion, together with the noble Lord, Lord Roberts of Conwy, who now speaks from a different side of the House. I begin with two preliminary observations and then seek to give some cautionary notes about how the Assembly may respond to the welcome powers that the Bill passes to it. I will not labour my first point, as the Minister and my noble friend Lord Rowlands made it well. The Bill is a model of co-operation between Westminster and the Assembly. My noble friend Lord Rowlands was a distinguished member of the Richard Commission. There seemed to be a great divide between the Assembly and Parliament, and a need to bridge that gap. It can be shown that that is possible by seeking pragmatically to work together. The history of the Bill has been outlined: its publication over a year ago, pre-legislative scrutiny to ensure that the terms are not set in tablets of stone, and then the relevant committees of the Assembly and this House working together. It was a model of co-operation. There has been so much scrutiny of the Bill that cynics might say that there is nothing left for us to do or say, but that has never stopped any Member of this or indeed any other House adding further. The Bill is a model of partnership of which we totally approve. Secondly, this transfer of powers to the Assembly is very proper, because transport is so vital to its other responsibilities that it is wholly appropriate that it should take the lead in that field. Currently the Assembly has very limited powers but there are massive problems. It is now charged with the duty of both developing and implementing policy. I join my noble friend Lord Rowlands in asking the Minister to set out the differences between the powers now available to the Assembly under the Railways Act and those available to the Scottish Parliament. Obviously, we cannot reasonably ask for that now but it would be helpful in terms of grants for the transfer of freight to rail, investments in rolling stock and infrastructure, and so on. I think that everyone would agree that under governments of all stripes there has been massive underinvestment in the railways. Some 10 years ago, the Western Mail compared the Paddington to Swansea line with the line from Paris to Angers, both of which are about 200 miles long. The conclusions were alarming. All the indices favoured France, not only in terms of speed but in pricing, punctuality and so on. That differential is almost certainly still there. In some ways, the journey times have worsened over recent years because of the need to reach targets. We welcome the fact that, now that the Wales and Border franchise has been awarded, all regional and local services are provided by a single operator. The Assembly may face new temptations under the new scheme of things. I wholly accept that the Secretary of State’s powers should be transferred to the Assembly. But let us not close our eyes to the fact that in Wales, be it hiraeth or our wonderful valley spirit, there is a certain parochialism, which does not provide a basis for strategic planning. Those dangers may be seen, for example, in how we made our local government changes: the counties were far more extensive geographically, so they were far better for planning, particularly in transport. Now that we have the possibility of joint authority under the Bill, the Assembly will have to guard against excessive parochialism. Although Wales is a political expression, and a historical and cultural entity, it is not a geographical area. There may also be a temptation, when drawing up a Wales strategy, not to look at the border areas and how important developments on the other side of the border have an impact on Wales’s own transport infrastructure. Many years ago, before the M4 was completed, I argued that the completion of various stretches of that motorway in England, as we got lost in the highways and byways of Wiltshire, was far more important for development in Wales than any development in Wales. Perhaps that is a lesson to look more widely, including at the border areas, when devising an all-Wales transport strategy. In the past, there has been a failure to recognise that key developments at the other side of the border are very important. The Assembly’s increased responsibility may accentuate the difficulties of looking at the big picture. Quite understandably, many Members of the Assembly see their role as winning the bacon for their own area: if there is a cake to be divided, everyone must have their own share, even if it is a fairly small slice. Yet in Welsh strategic terms, a bigger picture for large-scale investments may be needed. I fear, for example, that the Hafod bypass in Swansea may not have had sufficient priority because it would take too large a slice of the cake and too little would be left for others. That temptation must be guarded against. Of course that temptation exists now for Parliament and the Secretary of State but he can stand aside in a way that would be a little more difficult for the Assembly to do. I hear what is said about the intra-Wales regional airport strategy. I have had some experience of the, alas, abortive air link between Swansea, Cardiff and London. There are lessons to be learnt. Is there a danger, when there a link between north and south Wales, that one will cater only for the elites, travelling from north to south? One should look very carefully at the subsidies for those air links. Notwithstanding the understandable temptations that I have set out, I join my noble friends in commending the Bill. I adopt the two questions that my noble friend Lord Rowlands posed to the Minster. The transfer of powers and responsibilities to the Assembly will require much understanding, co-operation and goodwill between it and the local authorities in Wales and their own transport strategies. A similar amount of understanding, co-operation and goodwill with English local authorities will be required, which should be done in a spirit of consultation and reasonableness. The way in which this Bill has proceeded so far and the way in which the Assembly has shown itself willing to co-operate, listen and modify augurs well for the points that I have made. Therefore, those temptations may be avoided by our colleagues in the Assembly.