Gemma Lelliott, Director for Wales Community Transport Association, takes a look at why the new Bus Bill is so vital for communities across Wales.
At the Community Transport Association, our vision is of a world where everyone in their community can access transport that meets their needs. As we approach the introduction of a new ‘Bus Bill’ for Wales in 2025, we’ll be the first part of the UK able to get a feel for whether that vision might become reality.
As with any big policy and/or legislative change, this has been a long time coming. The new Bus Bill has been in the works since 2018, with an earlier version shelved due to COVID-19. We’ve since had Llwybr Newydd, the Wales Transport Strategy (2021), the National Transport Delivery Plan (2022), a white paper on reform called ‘One Network, One Timetable, One Ticket’ (also 2022) and the Roadmap to Franchising (2024).
The new iteration of the bill, designed to bring forward the legal framework to implement franchising as set out in these policy papers, is due to come before the Senedd for scrutiny in spring 2025. This will be high level primary legislation, with secondary legislation intended to be introduced to support it in advance of the Senedd elections in 2026.
TRANSPORT CHALLENGES
Transport in Wales is facing significant challenges. 40% of people in Wales live in settlements of 10,000 people or fewer. Across rural Wales, between 2018 and 2023, the public bus network reduced by 45%, resulting in many small communities becoming isolated – cut off from social and leisure opportunities, healthcare, jobs, and education.
While 80% of Welsh public transport journeys take place on buses, 80% of the Welsh Government’s investment into transport goes into rail. Meanwhile, funding for bus and Community Transport (CT) has remained stagnant for over a decade, further isolating communities as the reality of standstill budgets at a time of escalating costs means retracting networks.
Added to this, the cost of living crisis is having a significant impact on people’s decisions about whether or not to travel. For example, the Bevan Foundation found impacts of people being pushed into severe hardship by rising living costs – for instance, 13% of respondents said they had decided against taking ‘essential journeys’ such as travelling to work or medical appointments.
Similarly, Disability Wales reported that disabled people are experiencing ever-increasing social isolation due to lack of access to, or the high cost, of transport. Many young people living in Wales report that the public transport system’s fragmented, expensive and inaccessible nature presents a significant barrier to accessing education, training and work.
RISING DEMAND
The community transport sector in Wales is seeing demand rise faster than it can grow to meet it, with some operators reporting having to ask their passengers to book services more than a week in advance.
With over 750,000 passenger journeys a year, more than 60% of which are to health destinations, and with national awareness that transport is an essential part of ‘gateway infrastructure’ enabling people to access services and facilities and to helping them remain connected, it’s vitally important to our wellbeing as a nation to support this essential, accessible and affordable public service.
When we have people telling us of the real world impact of a lack of joined-up decision making and poor connectivity in the mainstream transport network, we hear about loneliness, isolation, and worsening physical and mental health. One hospital patient recently told a CTA member that before she was referred to them for help, she had ‘decided I would rather die of the cancer than have to make the journey’.
These stories are appalling, and unfortunately all too common. Fundamentally, we believe this new legislation presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to try to reshape the public transport network to meet more people’s needs.
WORKING TOGETHER
We’d love to work with WCVA, County Voluntary Councils and other voluntary sector partners across Wales to make this a reality, by collaboratively scrutinising and challenging the bill and associated secondary legislation, and getting directly involved with stakeholder engagement led by the regional teams across Wales.
We know that the transport network as it currently functions is not fit for purpose. While we’ve asked Welsh Government officials drafting the bill to include wording around coproduction and the statutory obligation to engage meaningfully with communities, we don’t know if it has been included. We see this as a significant opportunity as sector organisations are embedded in, and experts in, working alongside the communities they serve, and would be ideally placed to facilitate this.
With so many people and parts of Wales currently excluded from the mainstream transport network, it’s essential that we all have an equitable opportunity to be part of the key decisions that are coming.
CONTACT US
The future of Welsh transport belongs to all of us – get in touch if you’d like to find out more about getting involved in shaping it.
Find out more about health and social care in Wales by visiting WCVA’s Health and Care Project page.