5. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport: Funding for Buses

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:09 pm on 20 October 2020.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 4:09, 20 October 2020

I heard David Rowlands talking about multiple buses turning up in quick succession carrying a small number of passengers. It's rather reminiscent of all the little parties he's been a member of. But there is, of course—. The situation he talks of is a symptom of the problem we have with our public transport system. In a non-regulated environment, of course, anyone can set up a bus company and they can run the routes that they think are most profitable. So, you tend to have, on a small number of routes, a lot of competition on a lot of services because there's profit to be made, but not being able to cross-subsidise other routes to form a coherent network, and that's precisely why we wanted to bring the legislation forward, and that's precisely why we're now using the opportunity presented to us to try and use our funding to get maximum leverage to try and achieve that objective through other means. So, I completely agree with him on that.

Similarly, on the dial-up buses, as he talks of them, the terms may be different, but it's the same thing. We talk about demand-responsive transport, which is the same thing. And we are trialling, across five areas now, in Newport, Cardiff, Rhondda, Prestatyn and Denbigh, our Fflecsi service, run through Transport for Wales with local operators, which is supported by a website, an app and a telephone line, which replaces some scheduled local bus services with more flexible services that can pick up and drop off in an area by request, rather than at fixed bus stops at fixed times, and the feedback has been very positive where this has been trialled. As I say, in Newport we are looking now to increase that, and in Blaenau Gwent as well. And that is dipping our toe in the water of that particular model that David Rowlands talks about, and I think the aspiration for having a network of small, electric minibuses effectively, whizzing around picking up people at times that suit them to take them to places they want to go, is exactly what we are working towards. So, I hope I can give him some reassurance that we are, at least on that, in agreement.