An extra day has been added to get the bill through before the recess.

The Assembly will sit on a Friday for the first time in almost three years after the clerk confirmed on Wednesday that an extra day had been added to the parliamentary calendar to complete the passage of the Regional Rail Bill. The additional sitting, on the final Friday before the Christmas recess, was agreed by the business committee late on Tuesday night following a protracted dispute over how much time remained for amendments.

In a notice circulated to members, the clerk, Anselm Pryce, said the chamber would sit from 9.30am until the bill’s remaining stages were completed, with a provisional end time of 6pm. Members were told that the building’s catering and security staff had been asked to remain available until midnight should the debate run late.

Why the extra day was needed

The Regional Rail Bill would bring the lines between Calder, Port Selwyn and Harrow under a single publicly owned operator, merge ticketing and give the Assembly powers to set fares on the valley routes. It has been the government’s flagship legislation of the session, but its passage has been slowed by more than 140 amendments tabled at committee stage, many by opposition parties and the two independent members representing the hill towns.

Those independents have pushed for guarantees on minimum service levels to stations in the hill villages, several of which have seen trains cut to once every two hours. With no party holding more than 24 of the Assembly’s 61 seats, the governing coalition needs at least some support from outside its ranks to pass the bill at third reading, and ministers have spent the past fortnight negotiating with the independents.

“The bill has to clear every stage before the recess or it falls back to the start of the queue in the new year,” said Anselm Pryce, the Assembly clerk, in a short statement. “The business committee concluded that the only practical way to give members adequate time for the remaining amendments was to add a sitting day. I am satisfied that the arrangement complies with standing orders.”

Under the Assembly’s rules, bills that have not completed all stages by the end of a session can be carried over only with a two-thirds vote, which the government is not confident of securing. Without the Friday sitting, ministers warned, the bill’s timetable could slip by months, jeopardising the planned transfer of the valley lines to public ownership next autumn.

Opposition anger

Not all parties were happy. The largest opposition group said the extra day had been forced through with less than two weeks’ notice and accused the government of mismanaging its own timetable. Its business spokesperson, Marigold Huxtable, said Friday sittings disrupted members’ constituency work and family arrangements, particularly for those travelling from the coast and the hill towns.

“This is the price of bringing a bill this size to the chamber without doing the groundwork,” Huxtable said. “We have no objection to proper scrutiny. We object to being told, at the last minute, that scrutiny now has to happen on a Friday because ministers spent the autumn arguing among themselves.”

Government business managers rejected the charge, pointing out that the opposition had tabled more than half of the amendments. A spokesperson for the transport minister said the extra day was “a sign of respect for the chamber’s role” and that ministers would rather sit an extra day than curtail debate.

What to watch on Friday

Several key votes are expected. The most significant is an amendment from the hill-town independents that would write a minimum of one train an hour to each village station into law. Ministers had resisted this but were reported on Wednesday to be close to accepting a compromise that would set the minimum in regulations instead, reviewable after three years. If that deal holds, the independents are expected to back the bill at third reading.

Other amendments cover concessionary fares for under-18s, accessibility at older stations such as Harrow Moor and the treatment of existing rail staff on transfer to the new operator. The public gallery is expected to be full, and the Assembly has said it will stream proceedings on its website throughout the day. A final vote is likely in the early evening.