The Welsh Government have announced plans for 5-21 year olds to only pay £1 bus fares, starting later on this year. Wales hasn’t recovered its bus numbers since before the pandemic, so we’re asking people in Cardiff if they think this could be the catalyst to get us back onboard.
00:00If you're anywhere around a city centre in Wales, you'll probably see plenty of buses coming in and out of town.
00:08For plenty of people, they're an essential tool for travel, but the actual number of people using buses has never properly recovered to pre-pandemic levels in Wales.
00:16The Welsh Government has floated a few ideas of how to get people back on board, and the latest is a £1 bus fare scheme for young people.
00:23It's targeted in helping those young people get to and from education and work, but also hopes to foster the next generation of bus users.
00:31I'm here by the bus interchange in Cardiff City Centre, asking people what they think would get people young and old back on the buses.
00:39I think it's mainly prices. I mean, over the years, it's gone from £5 to, you know, for ten, I just do it daily anyway.
00:51I know that's not much for some people who don't earn a living, but it's a lot sometimes.
01:01Like, I don't work on a daily basis, so it's a lot for when I pay out for bus fares or train fares.
01:07Probably, prices tend to be extortion of the buses normally, so if you make it affordably, it'll probably get used more.
01:13I'm only not buying public transport today, though, because I can't drive.
01:17I'm over an island to search your point, but otherwise I probably would drive.
01:21Just because it's easier, you can go whatever you want to do, you're not on a schedule, and it depends where you live as well if the buses are accessible.
01:27Especially if they're not waiting round for buses for a long time, people will use them, I think.
01:33Well, you've got a better service where you are.
01:36Yeah, in the city, well, I'm lucky for living in a city, and I'm very used to it, but when you come on holiday, you realise, you know, the bus comes once every hour, every two hours sometimes, so you realise how lucky you are in the city.
01:47The £1 scheme could turn out to be a massive boost for bus numbers, and people have said that if a similar plan was in place for others, they might use the bus more, too.
01:58Oh, daily. Yeah, definitely, I'd use it on daily.
02:01Absolutely.
02:02At the moment, I only use it maybe three, four days out of the week, only because of the place it is now.
02:08But if you went back to £1 bus fares, I'd do it, daily.
02:14Well, it needs to be used, but because I'm a pensioner, it don't cost me anything.
02:21So, but my son has transferred to the rail, because at the end of the day, they work so cheap.
02:31No, like, my gran doesn't live rural, but she's very, she can't get a bus up to her, where she lives, past one o'clock in the afternoon,
02:40so then she has to be home by one o'clock, or someone of us has to pick her up.
02:45It's just, they're not, they're not great bus times, and I don't think there's, like, anything underneath past six o'clock,
02:51so I know, you know, bus drivers, they probably don't want to work past six, but people need buses, so...
