On 23 May, Welsh Deputy Minister for Climate Change Lee Waters announced an additional £46 million of funding for the bus sector in Wales, to last until 2024. In a statement to the Senedd, he said: “Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve invested over £150 million to keep the bus services running over and above our pre-Covid levels of investment. And our actions have saved an industry, and went over and above action taken by the UK Government. Whilst England lost 9.5% of its bus services last year, in Wales that figure was 2.4% because of our actions.
The Minister acknowledged that the situation is not unique to Wales, adding: “but we are the only Government in the UK working to reform the way we run buses to create a coherent planned system of franchising.”
The existing arrangements under Wales’ Bus Emergency Scheme (BES) had been scheduled to end on 24 July. Announcing the new funding, the Minister said: “We have nearly reached a solution that will allow us to make further funding available to protect as much of the network as we can for the remainder of this financial year.
The Welsh Government will make £46 million available from bus budgets to support BES and successor arrangements for the whole financial year, as well as to keep our strategic TrawsCymru services running.
“This is in addition to the £45 million we are forecasting spending on concessionary fares for older people, and reduced fares for young people, and our other regular support for the bus industry, including the £25 million bus services support grant, and all the funding we indirectly invest in the industry through local authorities, particularly for school transport. Home-to-school transport makes up around a quarter of all local authority direct spending on education. That figure is now around £137 million a year, and we need to do more to consider school transport as part of the overall public transport system.”
Reimbursement increased
To help operators meet inflationary pressures, the Welsh Government has also agreed to uplift the amount of reimbursement given to operators for concessionary journeys by 10.1%, to reflect increased costs. However, changes may still be needed, the Minister warned: “The emergency funding has been a lifeline, but it’s had the impact of preserving a pattern of services that existed before the lockdowns. Travel behaviour has now changed; there are fewer people using buses and trains, and the times of day they are using them has also changed. There are fewer commuting journeys and more leisure journeys. We therefore do not want to keep a pattern of services running that no longer reflects demand or need.
The challenge we then have is to design with local authorities and operators a network of services that can best serve passengers in the time we have available to plan, and within the funding that is available to us.”
Full details of the new funding agreements are yet to be finalised, and further additional funding is expected to be made available for the following financial year.
Reacting to the news, Confederation of Passenger Transport CEO Graham Vidler said: “We welcome the Welsh Government’s ongoing commitment to invest in supporting bus services. The funding recognises the value of buses to local communities and the economy. However, it is not yet known whether the settlement can save all services in every part of Wales beyond July. We urgently call on the Welsh Government to clarify their exact funding position to allow the sector to swiftly work with local authority partners to protect services, minimise disruption and safeguard jobs.”
