AN overhaul of bus services in Wales has caused concern to Cardiff Council which owns the capital’s bus firm.
The Welsh Government is proposing the franchising of bus services across Wales, allow local authorities to create new municipal bus companies, and the relaxation of restrictions on existing municipal bus companies, like Cardiff Bus, to put them on the same footing as new firms.
It also wants Transport for Wales – which was established to oversee the operation by a private firm of the rail network in Wales but which became the operator itself when passenger revenue collapsed during the pandemic – to design bus networks and services with local council and the government.
But the Labour council has questioned this proposal fearing it would be dictated to how a bus service should be run down to details such as branding and ticketing.
It has shared with councillors the responses it wishes to send to the Welsh Government’s consultation on its white paper, ‘One Network, One Timetable, One Ticket: planning buses as a public service for Wales’
The council’s cabinet member for transport, Cllr Daniel De’Ath shared his thoughts at the council’s environmental scrutiny committee meeting.
He said that whilst the council does have concerns about the proposal, he added that it is “very much on board” with it as a concept. He said: “It is a very exciting vision”.
Cllr De’Ath said: “I personally think it would be wonderful to see more councils with their own municipal bus companies. I find that really exciting, but the major issue is around risk in the public sector.
“Risk being transferred from the private sector to the public sector, risks around long-term funding, the security of publicly-owned companies who obviously operate routes that profit-driven companies tend to shy away from.
“I felt that school transport was conspicuous by its absence in the white paper and really, I think there are still question marks over the precise control Cardiff Bus and the council would have over what happened in the future of the bus services.
“As exciting as the Welsh Government’s vision is, I can’t see as things stand it being a particularly attractive offer to other councils that don’t have municipal bus companies to set them up. I think that is a real shame and I don’t think that is what they are intending.”
The council will be looking for more information and answers from the Welsh Government on its proposals. Next week the council’s cabinet will be asked to approve the response before the deadline on June 24.
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The council answered ‘disagree’ to the question in the consultation, ‘do you agree with the Welsh Government’s preferred franchising model as described above?’.
When talking about franchising in relation to the white paper, the Welsh Government meant that local authorities, Transport for Wales and the Welsh Government would work together to design bus networks and services.
The consultation report reads: “The franchising authority specifies the services and how they will run, including routes, vehicle standards, timetables, fares, branding, passenger information and ticketing.
“Operators will then bid for contracts to run these services, competing in a tender process to deliver those services as efficiently and effectively as possible rather than competing for passengers at bus stops.”
In the comments section to this question, the council responded by saying: “The vast majority of bus services are local in nature and require this connection to the local community to be ‘owned’ at that level.”
The comments continued: “Unlike railways which has a national infrastructure basis for the track and control, the control over the vast majority of highways is local in nature and by implication control over bus networks and their ‘track’ should remain at the same level”.
Cardiff Council’s cabinet will meet to discuss the consultation response on June 23.
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