Safety of Staff on Public Transport

Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 11:57 am on 15 July 2020.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 11:57, 15 July 2020

Well, certainly we're interested in innovations and we'll be keen to look in detail at this example, and there are more low-tech innovations closer to home that have been developed. Edwards Coaches, for example, have been experimenting with plastic shields on their buses to try and get more passengers safely on them. And we're looking at all of these. As ever, the economics of the bus industry is challenging for these kinds of investments and we've been struggling with the operators to find a way to allow them to ramp up services with existing vehicles, given how fragile their business model is, how dependent they are on public subsidy, and how to balance the extra investment needed to put these measures in with their ability to trade as businesses.