16 April 2019

Dear Adrian

Assembly Committee Report on Autumn Rail Disruption

I write to draw your attention to the report published by the Assembly’s Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee on 20 March 2019 on Autumn Rail Disruption. The Welsh Government’s response is expected on 1 May, although given the time that has passed the report is unlikely to be debated in plenary.

The report notes that committee scrutiny of the rail franchise was informed by WAO’s 2016 report into Welsh Government’s investment in rail services and infrastructure, and the committee was also grateful for briefing from WAO staff. I therefore stated in the report’s foreword that I would write to draw your attention to the Committee’s findings, which may help inform any future WAO plans to examine franchise operations once Transport for Wales (TfW) has bedded in and progressed further with its programme of rail infrastructure improvement.

The six recommendations in the committee’s report include:

· that TfW report back to us at the end of 2019 on its new performance standards and plan for communicating the full range of standards and performance data (Recommendation 3);

· seeking assurances that capacity issues on the network will be properly addressed by planned service enhancements, and that capacity planning will take full account of all factors that may affect future demand (Recommendation 5); and

· for Transport for Wales to make a full assessment of the risks attached to its plans for procuring and introducing new rolling stock on to the network, and how these will be mitigated (Recommendation 6).

The Committee will also shortly publish a report on the future development of TfW, specifically looking at whether its current governance, structure and funding are effective and transparent; its future role in delivering transport policy; and how its responsibilities will integrate with the role of Welsh Government, local government and emerging proposals for joint transport authorities.

I hope that the Committee’s findings are useful to the WAO’s future scrutiny of the value for money aspects of TfW’s activities.  

Yours sincerely

Russell George AM

Chair

Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee