Ceredigion bus routes being axed by Arriva to be saved

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Ceredigion bus routes being axed by Arriva to be saved


New operators are being sought to run the reprieved routes

Two bus routes at risk of closure in mid Wales have won a reprieve.

Arriva Buses Wales said it would scrap six services on 21 December, with the loss of 46 staff and the closure of a depot in Aberystwyth and bus stations in New Quay, Lampeter and Dolgellau.

The Welsh government will now fund buses on the 40 route from Aberystwyth to Carmarthen and the 50 from Synod Inn to Aberystwyth until June 2014. It follows a decision last month to save the X94 from Wrexham to Barmouth.

The 20, 40, 40C, 50, 585 and X94 were all placed under threat following Arriva's announcement on 1 October. The company blamed cuts in public transport funding and rising fuel costs for the decision.

In response transport minister Edwina Hart said local operators could take over the routes in the short term while longer term solutions for a sustainable network of services were sought.

It is understood the Welsh government is now working on contracts with new bus companies to run the services.

Ceredigion council said following talks last week the Welsh government had agreed to provide ^81,000 in 2013-14 and the same amount in 2014-15 for the 40 and 50 routes. The new buses will starting operating on 22 December.

Ceredigion council's cabinet member for environmental services, assets, transport and carbon management, Alun Williams, said: "The 40 and 50 services have previously been commercial routes not funded by the council and it was very difficult to see how we could have found the kind of money necessary to subsidise them when the council has just learnt that it must save ^9.5m in the next financial year.

"Behind the scenes the council has therefore been working very hard in the last few weeks to make the case for Welsh government funding for these services that are absolutely vital for local people and to the Ceredigion economy.

"We are very grateful to the Transport Minister, Edwina Hart, for making this funding available and for announcing that in future the routes will be regarded as nationally strategic."

Mr Williams said he was awaiting clarification on whether the 40C route would also be saved.

Arriva Buses Wales is in consultation with the 46 staff who would be affected by the cuts.

[Rhydgaled]

The suituation looks rather less bright in Pembrokeshire, where 'death by a thousand cuts' looks to be the order of the day. The cuts in 2014 might only be a few evening services, but that's just going to make the service less attractive to fare-paying passengers which will lead to more cuts. Downward spiral. The Beeching axe probably had a similar effect on rail.

I've found a couple of articles (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/fears-over-cost-free-bus-6146249 and http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/free-bus-travel-scheme-turmoil-6289673) which suggest a cut to concessionary travel pass payments could also be forthcoming, which would further reduce bus service availablity.

Not good news for anyone who hopes for buses to attract modal shift from cars to help combat climate change. I wonder if it is possible to acheive the Beeching aim (lower subsidy) by doing the opposite, providing a better service to attract more fare-paying passengers. Or is it just like rail, whether the service is poor or good, it still seems to require significant subsidy?

[Lee]

Personally, I think it can be achieved, but it would probably require a network-based approach of carefully targeted increases in frequency that go hand in hand with more efficient utilisation of bus/vehicle resources. The ZigZag Consultation proposals put forward by grahame are a good example of such an approach.

Ideally, the local authority and relevant bus operators would work together and form a Quality Bus Partnership to progress such proposals. Unfortunately, no such agreement was reached regarding the ZigZag proposals, which leaves a choice of two extremes in such cases - Either accept the status quo along with the strong likelihood that matters are unlikely to improve for the foreseeable future, or adopt a rather more radical approach such as Quality Contracts, where local authorities effectively take control of the bus network through TfL^» (Transport for London - about)-style powers over bus service and fare specification.

Interestingly, there are signs from elsewhere in Wales that the option of Quality Contracts is being actively considered as a means of countering Welsh Government bus funding cuts and the fare increases/service reductions implemented by bus operators in response to those bus funding cuts - http://www.transport-network.co.uk/Swansea-to-consider-bus-Quality-Contracts/9364#.UoQ6jbxFDMw

[Rhydgaled]

Thanks for the reply, Lee. I'm sorry this response was so long coming, but I (still) haven't had time to follow up on it. For example, I haven't researched what a quality contract/partnership is, but I do know that WAG^» (Welsh Assembly Government - about) tried to introduce the TrawsCymru TC1 Aberystwyth-Carmarthen service (which Arriva instead ran commertially as the recently canceled CymruExpress 40) under a statutory bus Quality Partnership Scheme. Apparently, when Arriva messed that up WAG were going to "look at the case for developing a Quality Contract for that corridor", but I don't know if anything came of it.

I sent off a number of suggestions to Pembrokeshire council's consultation, but I'm not sure they'll be much help if the conessionary travel pass funding is cut too.

One of my suggestions was "Making routes as direct as practical", my idea being that indirect routes which nobody driving would use would put potential passengers off. Back in Ceredigion, saving the 50 service has come at the cost of a near-total axing of the Aberystwyth-Cardigan direct service. Nearly all services now take an indirect route via New Quay, to cover the 50 route. As a local service it is much improved, but as a strategic long-distance TrawsCambria route it is an insult. To my supprise I have since come across an article online suggesting one of the highly indirect routes in the area (460, between Carmarthen and Cardigan) has bucked the declining trend and seen increased passenger numbers. Not sure how it managed that or whether the passengers are fare-paying or not though. The one thing it has to shout about is it has Bwcabus to feed into it, and Bwcabus claims it is doing well.