Funding agreed for Ceredigion bus routes

The Welsh Government  has agreed to fund alternative contracts for the Ceredigion bus services due to be lost when Arriva pulls out on 21st December.

The routes involved are:

• The 40 service from Aberystwyth to Carmarthen  via Lampeter
• The 50 service from Aberystwyth to Synod Inn

The announcement that £162,000 revenue funding will be made available to the end of June comes after several weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations during which Ceredigion Council made a very strong case for the vital economic role the services play in Ceredigion.

The 40 and 50 services run on previously unsubsidised commercial routes and it was very difficult to see how the Council could be expected to take on their funding at a time when it is being asked to make huge savings in the next financial year due to grant money being lost from central government.

The news will be a great relief to the many people entirely dependent on these bus services to get to and from work who had been viewing the planned pull-out with trepidation. Transport Minister Edwina Hart has also pleased campaigners by saying that in future the routes will be regarded as nationally strategic.

Ceredigion Council will now proceed with the tendering arrangements for the routes. 

The 585 service from Aberystwyth to Lampeter via Tregaron, which Arriva has announced it will pull out of on February 15^th, is already subsidised by the council and new tenders for this will also be sought.