November 04 2025
The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) will deliver a manifesto for change to the Welsh Parliament today, setting out priorities to enhance bus and coach services across the country ahead of May’s Senedd elections.
Driving Wales Forward is a cross-party call for investment to create the conditions for Wales’s most popular and affordable modes of public transport to prosper. The manifesto will be launched at a bus depot in Cwmbran today before being taken to the Senedd, by bus, and presented to members.
At the heart of the manifesto is a call for urgent action to speed up buses. On the busiest urban routes, bus journey times have increased by 50% over the last 50 years. Reversing this trend is possible and would be transformational. Research shows that a 10% increase in bus speeds – to just over 13.6mph on average – could save nearly £18m in operating costs and make buses significantly more attractive to passengers.
On busy urban routes, this 10% increase in speeds could attract 2.8m additional passengers, and more than 3m across the country as a whole. That’s equivalent to every single person in Wales making one more bus journey each year, generating more than £7m in additional revenue that could drive a virtuous circle of growth and investment in the network.
Quicker buses and more passengers would mean a cost saving for local authorities that could be reinvested in local services, with the potential to save £400 a year for every household.
Faster buses can be achieved through simple changes to road design to take public transport out of congestion. Bus lanes, traffic light priority and town planning with buses in mind can all contribute to getting passengers to their destination faster.
Aaron Hill, Director of CPT Cymru, said:
“Buses are Wales’s favourite form of public transport, carrying nearly 200,000 people a day. But too often, they get snarled up in traffic jams, making passengers frustrated and hurting the economy.
“Bus speeds have been declining for nearly five decades. It’s time to put a stop to that and take clear action to speed up buses. So we’re laying down a challenge to whoever gets elected to the Senedd: let’s get buses moving 10 percent faster over the next parliamentary term.
“Buses are a cross-party issue that matter deeply to people across Wales. They help people to get to work, to school, to visit family and friends and to access public services. Improving buses is a straightforward way to improve peoples’ everyday lives.”
Martin Gibbon, Chair of CPT Cymru, said:
“Operators across Wales are ready to play their part in delivering faster, more reliable, and greener transport. But to make that happen, we need local and national leaders to prioritise buses and coaches in every decision about our roads and communities.
“Simple, low-cost measures – from bus lanes to better traffic light management – can make an enormous difference to passengers and the environment. If we work together to speed up journeys and make public transport the easiest choice, we can unlock real benefits for households, local economies, and the climate.”
In its manifesto, CPT Cymru is calling on the government to:
- Provide funding clarity to operators and local authorities to plan future services.
- Use targeted measures to keep fares low.
- Ensure value for money is a key factor in deciding regulatory models across Wales.
- Increase bus speeds by 10% over the Senedd term.
- Support the important role coaches play the public transport mix through data collection and analysis.
Read the Driving Wales Forward manifesto in full here.