Transport for Wales (TfW) has stated that train services and jobs would have suffered losses without additional funding from the Welsh government. TfW CEO James Price warned that if the company had not received extra £125m it would have found itself in a difficult position. The announcement came despite the finance minister announcing cuts for most government departments. The company has been responsible for train services across most of Wales since 2018 and is owned by the Welsh government.
TfW witnessed an increase of over 50% in its funding because of the Welsh government’s exercise to find savings in response to budgetary pressures. The minister said the additional finance was to safeguard services for passengers and continue with the current transformation programme. The CEO said the additional money was required to address the income between actual revenue from ticket sales and where TfW expected to be according to projections set five years ago.
Mr. Price further added that TfW would still require extra support for the coming year to bridge the gap. He said he honestly believed for the next few years the company would struggle to catch up to where it ought to have been, according to the 2018 forecasts, and additional support was needed to decrease the gap swiftly. Bus industry organizations expressed disappointment that no additional funding was announced for bus services.
Andrew Potter, professor in transport and logistics at Cardiff University, believed there needed to be a decision regarding how much subsidy could be put into rail versus buses in the long run. First Minister Mark Drakeford said that public subsidy in buses and trains reached an all-time high and investment into bus services had not reduced. However, Aaron Hill, director of Confederation of Passenger Transport Cymru, asserted that 20-25% of bus services could be removed next year, and there was still no certainty over what the funding package would look like beyond that
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