Council ‘working to address congestion’ as bus services cut

CARDIFF Council insisted it is working to address congestion in the city after Cardiff Bus announced that it is making major changes to its services.

As reported in yesterday’s Echo, Cardiff Bus has announced that it is having to cut and change a number of its bus services amid a lack of funding and recovering passenger numbers. It also said it is having to factor in additional journey time for its new timetables to navigate worsened levels of congestion.

Cardiff Bus said it also needs to consider the new 20mph speed limit, changes to road layouts and loss of highway capacity.

A council spokesperson said: “Cardiff Council is using the limited funding available to provide targeted support in areas where bus services are being withdrawn by the operators and there isn’t alternative public transport available.

“Funding from the Welsh Government’s Bus Emergency Scheme came to an end in July. The Bus Transition Fund seeks to address this to facilitate a long-term, sustainable transition to franchising.

“As set out in Cardiff’s Transport White Paper, provisions are being put in place to improve public transport, including bus travel, as well as cycling and walking routes.

“For bus services, the road layout is being improved with additional bus lanes and strategic bus corridors which will run from the Cardiff Capital Region into the city.

“As with all development, while these improvements are made, there will be disruption to the highway network, and we will continue to work with all bus operators to mitigate the impact as best as possible.

“In the longer term, the council is working on bus network improvements that will address areas of congestion and provide improved interchange to access a wider range of destinations and other forms of transport. We hope this will see more people choosing to travel around the city by bus.”

Cardiff Bus said it is seeing just over 80% of pre-pandemic customers returning to its services.

Cardiff Bus’ statement said: “This is now the new base level that we must work from as we move back to operating with reducing support. These are hard decisions, but we must make changes to maintain a sustainable network.”

The changes will take effect from September.