WREXHAM Council has pledged to protect rural bus routes as the Welsh Government consults on plans to take control of local bus networks across Wales.
The North Wales Regional Transport Plan currently under consultation includes details of the proposed new franchise model for Welsh bus services, due to be introduced in 2028.
According to the plans, decisions on routes, timetables, fares, hours of operation and service quality standards will be made by Welsh Government and Transport for Wales instead of commercial bus operators, in partnership with Corporate Joint Committees.
Central funding would also be controlled by the Senedd, which could see £400,000 of public transport funding taken away from Wrexham County Borough Council for the Welsh Government to allocate to bus services instead.
Wrexham Council’s Executive Board will be asked to approve a consultation response to the Regional Transport Plan that highlights the authority’s concerns that it will lose the ability to influence decisions on bus routes without changes to the franchise plan.
Wrexham Council’s deputy leader David Bithell said that he was concerned about the impact on less profitable bus routes – but assured Wrexham residents that whatever happens, the council would find a way to maintain vital transport links for vulnerable and isolated rural communities.
“We’ve increased our bus funding in the last three years from nothing to £600,000,” he said. “We’re starting to see increased patronage on our bus routes now but the Bus Franchising Bill could derail that.
“It takes away local autonomy from the council. The Welsh Government has put £400,000 into our buses this year so in total Wrexham bus services have had £1m of investment.
“There’s nothing wrong with the franchise legislation, the issue is funding.
“There’s no additional funding coming from Welsh Government for this. In fact they might take their money away. But I can assure residents we certainly will not be handing over to Welsh Government the money we are investing for them to make a decision where the buses go.
“That’s for us to decide. The priority in the last couple of years has been to invest in services like the evening services which are starting to flourish.
“The second part of our investment was increasing some of the rural community routes. Routes like the 146 in Whitchurch, Penley, Overton and Bangor-on-Dee, we’ve done some in the Moss Valley too.
“We’ve started to encourage rural communities to use these services because they have suffered in recent years.
“They had a really good rural bus network but then D Jones and Son and GHA Coaches collapsed and we’ve still to this day got 27 bus routes that are still lost as a result of that even though we’ve invested £600,000.
“This year we will be trying to put more of those rural bus services back. We can’t restore them all straight away, it’s a process, but we want to make sure that the franchise plan doesn’t prevent us from continuing that work and restoring our rural bus services.
“That is what we need the power to do as an authority, which is why hope the Executive Board approves this response.
“We want to work collaboratively with Welsh Government on this going forward so hopefully their aspirations and our aspirations can come together.”
The Regional Transport Plan also includes rail, and Executive Board members will be asked to approve a call for the Welsh Government to approve investment in the Wrexham-Bidston Borderlands railway line to increase direct trains to Liverpool from Wrexham and the creation of a direct link from Wrexham to London.
