THE Welsh Government has unveiled its plans to "bring bus services in Wales back under public control".

It follows a public consultation in which the majority of Welsh local authorities said they would back plans for a new franchise agreement - even though Newport City Council raised concerns the scheme could harm the future of its arms-length firm, Newport Bus.

Announcing the plans, Welsh deputy climate change minister Lee Waters railed against previous efforts to privatise public bus travel, claiming “public transport has been left to wither”.

He also vowed the Welsh Government’s new approach would create better transport links to the Grange University Hospital, which houses Gwent’s only major accident and emergency department but has so far been relatively disconnected from public transport.

“It allows us to take a strategic, whole-area approach, again, unlike the current system where, for example, the Grange hospital in Cwmbran is very poorly served by bus routes,” he told the Senedd. “So, that wouldn't happen under this system.”

Mr Waters said the government’s new bus plan would “put people before profit and bring the planning and securing of bus services back under public control”.

This would also make services more compatible with each other and improve the customer experience, he suggested.

“It means that we can co-ordinate services, so that people can make their connections with trains or with other buses smoothly and easily to get to where they need to go, with all the passenger information they need freely available in one place,” he said. “And it means that we can simplify ticketing, offering simple area-wide fares, so that people don’t have to navigate tickets from different operators, and don’t end up paying over the odds for tickets on routes that the operator considers marginal.”

The new bus plan follows proposals put forward by Lord Terry Burns’ transport commission, which was set up to find alternatives to the scrapped M4 relief road motorway.

The commission said better ticketing systems, along with co-ordinated bus and train timetables, would help create a “network of alternatives” around Newport that would encourage people to use public transport instead of the car.

But despite the Welsh Government’s praise for its new plan, there was some disappointment when John Griffiths, the Senedd member for Newport East, asked whether the scheme would mean more free bus travel for citizens, as has been introduced several times in the city on a month-long basis each time.

“The reality at the moment, given our financial settlement, is that this is not something that we are able to draw upon,” Mr Waters said.

“When our budget is falling, in effect, by £3 billion next year, very frustratingly, that is not something that we're going to be likely to be able to afford in the short term.”