The Welsh Government plans to mount a publicity campaign to encourage more use of buses, once it judges it has found a way to make services stable. The government will continue emergency funding from July until the end of this year while changes to networks are explored.
The government says it does not have enough funding to replicate England’s £2 bus fare cap. It had costed a £1 flat fare for all Welsh journeys, but deputy climate change minister Lee Waters claims that this initiative was scuppered by the mini-budget under Liz Truss’ brief prime ministership. In the absence of fare capping, Wales will try other forms of promotion.
“Once we have finalised a way to put services onto a stable footing for the next 18 months, we can then turn in earnest to a joint effort to promote those services,” Mr Waters told the Senedd on May 23. “Restoring patronage is critical to a healthy future for our bus network, so I’d ask members across the chamber to think about how they can encourage their constituents to use the buses in our local areas and support a recovery to the level of service we all want to see across Wales.”
He said the government had nearly reached a solution that would provide funding “to prot…
