Hammered by the pandemic and cuts, much-maligned and seeming unfashionable – are buses being unfairly overlooked in discussions around transport in Wales? What does the future hold?
Like any other business or service reliant on supporting large groups of people in a single closed space, bus services were hit particularly hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, with passenger numbers in Wales falling by up to 90% during the first wave.
In response to this, the Welsh Government provided emergency funding for bus companies worth at least £140million in 2020-21 alone, with the amount of support gradually reducing as public health restrictions were lifted.
There was a concerted effort to keep bus services running, particularly for key workers who had no other means of transport. Free bus travel was temporarily brought in for NHS staff and during the peak of the pandemic, it was said every bus passenger in Wales was subsidised to the tune of £30 (in the years pre-pandemic, the figure was closer to 30p).
While previous cuts to bus routes have affected only those that are lightly used or deemed “unprofitable”, the pandemic resulted in core services in some areas being cut to two-hourly frequencies or less.
During autumn 2021, a problem emerged of a shortage of qualified bus drivers as some left the industry to seek better pay in the haulage industry as a result of an HGV driver shortage caused by a mix of Brexit, changes to off-payroll tax rules (IR35) and pandemic-related administrative delays (to things like driving tests).
The issue now – in light of concerns over climate change, traffic congestion and air pollution – is whether the pandemic will hit public confidence in using public transport just as the Welsh Government transport policies (under Llwybr Newydd) prioritise public transport over the car.
Bus-based solutions form a core part of the Burns Commission recommendations for Newport and bus rapid transit also forms part of various metro schemes. There’s also a push for bus companies to switch to zero-emission vehicles with Cardiff Bus and Newport Bus recently putting their first electric buses into passenger service.
The latest annual report from Bus Users (pdf) showed that the number of complaints about bus services fell by up to 5% in 2020-21 compared to the previous year – though that was a given considering the fall in passenger numbers. Some of the most common complaints before and during the pandemic relate to driver attitudes, service levels and ticketing.
The move towards cashless payments during the pandemic was also said to “prevent millions of people without bank accounts from travelling, so we have been highlighting the need to retain exact-change payments as the safest and fairest way to keep people moving.”
Integrated ticketing across all forms of public transport, improved service reliability and frequency and seamless interchange between bus, rail (and possibly in future, light rail) – and probably cleanliness and journey comfort (particularly low levels of overcrowding) – will all be key to ensuring the pandemic recovery is public transport led rather than car led. That’s before factoring in the push towards increased distant working too.
The gap in scheduled services may also be filled by flexible on-demand bus services (“Fflecsi” and the former Bwcabus) which were once confined to rural areas, but are now being trialled in built-up areas like Newport, northern Cardiff, Blaenau Gwent and Rhondda Cynon Taf.
