Sustainability of Bus Services

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 23 January 2018.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 2:15, 23 January 2018

(Translated)

How many companies have we seen over the years go to the wall? We’ve seen many. We must reconsider the structure of bus services. That means, for example, whether it's possible to have a system of franchises—it won’t work on a local government level; I think that would be too small—to ensure that the companies have to deliver the service at the price that was agreed and that that’s sustainable for years to come. We’ve got to move away from the system we have at present where, for the majority of the people of Wales, one company runs the services and they decide on which ones will work without any kind of input or permission from local people. That has to change. We must consider that there’s no competition in most parts of Wales. We’ll have to move to a kind of system that is much more sustainable and will ensure that we don’t see services just falling apart, very often, as we have seen over the past years.