Congestion worsened by poor city planning is negatively affecting efficiency and punctuality, says the Managing Director of South Wales-based Adventure Travel. Adam Keen, who talks specifically about Cardiff, says running a punctual bus service there is “near impossible”.
Adventure Travel made changes to 14 out of its 81 services last November, citing an increase in traffic and introduction in September 2023 of the default 20mph speed limit in Wales. News last month from the Welsh Government that some roads would revert to 30mph may ease issues in Cardiff.
However, although some of the primary arteries in towns, cities and villages could lose the 20mph limit from September, Mr Keen says this does not necessarily mean schedules will return to how they were last summer.
Explaining the problems, he says: “The area where we struggle most to run buses punctually is Cardiff, where traffic levels are entirely inconsistent and the few bus priorities in place have been replaced with cycle lanes in many cases.
“Running a bus service punctually in Cardiff is near impossible at present, due to poor phasing of traffic lights, removal of traffic lanes, poorly managed roadworks and general disregard for the statutory requirement that is placed on operators of local bus services.
“The inconsistency of traffic volume is also a key challenge, with a bus being able to run within five minutes of its schedule on one day, but then taking an extra 10-20 minutes the next.”
News that changes to the speed limit would be brought in by September was warmly welcomed by Scott Pearson, Chair of trade body Coach and Bus Association Cymru.
“While we fully recognise the importance of speed reduction and accident prevention, especially around schools and colleges, the impact to bus networks on main corridors away from these facilities has meant increased costs and passenger frustration for operators, where potentially these measures may not have been so necessary or effective,” he says.
“The ability of local authorities, who know their areas better than central government, to now make cohesive decisions around which areas are 20mph and which should return to 30mph, with proper thought and consistency not only of local areas but across Wales, will certainly take away the confusion of interpretation of the current legislation.”
