The impact on bus services of the new 20mph default speed limit in Wales is being reviewed by the Welsh Government, Lee Waters MS, the minister with responsibility for transport has repeated.
Mr Waters’ comments in the Senedd on 10 January were in response to questions over widespread service reductions for North Wales recently announced by Arriva. The operator says these changes are necessary due to the effect of the 20mph limit on the overall speed of the service, since the speed became law in September 2023.
Among the service changes, which will be phased in throughout January, the X51 will controversially bypass the village of Llandegla in Denbighshire from this Sunday onwards.
That withdrawal has made national mainstream headlines and the villagers are campaigning for the service to be resumed.
Mr Waters, who has responsibility for buses as part of his role as Welsh Government’s Deputy Minister for Climate Change, said in Welsh Parliament: “We’ve been clear that we’d like to learn from the introduction of the 20 mph and make improvements.
“We’ve always recognised there would be an impact on some bus services, and we’re now reviewing the guidance issued to local authorities, and impacts on buses are part of that review.”
Later in the extensive session on the issue, he added: “I’ve asked Phil Jones, who’s leading the review for us, to consider whether further tweaks to the guidance on exceptions would be helpful, for example, by explicitly including major bus routes as one of the local criteria they can consider.”
Mr Waters also stressed that local councils should use their powers to exempt roads from the 20mph default speed limit in Wales where appropriate with particular consideration possible for major bus routes.
He questioned why only 0.6% of roads in Denbighshire had been subject to local authority 30mph exemption, compared to the 10% seen for areas such as Swansea and Bridgend.
He said: “The local authorities in North Wales have had the ability to create exemptions, and they’ve chosen not to. It may well be that’s what’s causing some of the difficulties for Arriva and a more nuanced, granular approach would be better.”
He added: “Clearly, councils do have the power to exempt some roads where they feel it’s justified, and whether a street is on a major bus route is, obviously, something that they can take into consideration.”
The government had encouraged councils to use “common sense” in applying exemptions, using a “sniff test” of whether 20mph “feels right”. However, he said “wholesale changes” were not anticipated as part of the Government’s review into the 20mph limit’s effects.
Mr Waters also appeared to rule out large-scale reversions back to 30mph for all bus routes. “I’m not convinced that the automatic response to that is to revert all bus routes to 30 mph,” he said. “I don’t think the right answer is to allow some of the heaviest and largest vehicles on our roads to drive the fastest in built-up areas where people and traffic are mixing.”
As well as the effect of the new law, Arriva Wales cites a lack of funding from Welsh Government for the changes.
A statement says: “The withdrawal of this service in Llandegla is due to the impact of 20mph on the 51 and X51 services. To be clear this is not to say that Llandegla and its speed limits are the issue but now the service overall is taking longer to operate due to reduced speeds across the network.
“The consequences of this change in speed has been severe and has caused increased lost mileage and reduced punctuality. We have been open in raising our concerns with Transport for Wales, the Welsh government and local authorities. There have also been press statements and questions raised in the Senedd about this on the basis of our concerns and the consequences.
“As a response to reducing speed of buses there are these options to reduce frequency: speed up buses by withdrawing the service from an area or increase the amount of resource in the bus service. This service is already operating at a low frequency and there is no funding to support increased resource going into services so we have had to amend the route with the time saved by not operating in the village. This time has been reinvested into the service to help it operate to time. These changes have taken place based upon a review of patronage and estimated time savings.
“As a response to reducing speed of buses there are these options to reduce frequency: speed up buses by withdrawing the service from an area or increase the amount of resource in the bus service. This service is already operating at a low frequency and there is no funding to support increased resource going into services so we have had to amend the route with the time saved by not operating in the village. This time has been reinvested into the service to help it operate to time. These changes have taken place based upon a review of patronage and estimated time savings. ”
South Wales-based operator Adventure Travel cited the new default limit for service changes in November, while Cardiff Bus and Stagecoach South made adjustments in the build-up to the law change.