Wales confirms funding for spring restoration

NEWS

The Welsh government has allocated £18.6million of additional funding for buses for the first quarter of 2021/22, with the aim of restoring 80% of pre-pandemic services.

First Cymru 44558 (YX13 AKU), an Alexander Dennis Enviro200 with Thank You NHS branding next to its destination display, alongside the cycle and footpath built on the trackbed of the Mumbles Railway, which South Wales Transport closed in 1960. 

ALAN MILLAR

This is more, pro rata, than the £45million of Covid-19 additional funding for the whole of this financial year. That funding was provided in the second half of the year, under the Bus Emergency Scheme.

Transport minister Ken Skates says: ‘During this period of ongoing uncertainty, an additional £18.6million funding will provide stability to bus operators to continue to run efficient services in the early part of the next financial year.

‘This investment will also fund a review into how bus services operate so that we can both safeguard and subsequently reform the industry to meet the needs of the people of Wales and the continuing challenges posed by Covid-19.’