Madam,

Re: Bwcabus

Yet again we read an article in which someone is singing the praises of the Bwcabus scheme. There is no question that those passengers who have no other choice find it of benefit in preference to having no service. However, huge criticisms of Bwcabus exist and need to be aired.

In the first place, it is the most expensive, inefficient and com-plicated glorified 19-seater taxi service to be running on rural Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire roads. It has attracted £3.6m from European funding which has been spent in ways that no other public transport scheme would get away with. Since the European funding has run out, the Welsh Government has bailed out this adventure, last year to the tune of £108,000 for just three months. Both Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire taxpayers have put in substantial sums over the years.

Who has gained? The Bwcabus project has been set up in such a complicated manner and with so many bodies involved, that Freedom of Information requests regarding the cost of the service per passenger have not received any answers because to retrieve the data would take too long. We can only surmise from the overall figures that very few passengers use it and that, therefore, the subsidy per passenger is enormous, far larger than necessary. Glamorgan University (now University of West Wales) has been paid large sums of money, 2011/12 £100,000, 2012/13 £64,000, 2013/14 £94,000 (estimated) and 2014/15 £105,000 (estimated), according to Carmarthenshire’s figures. In the years 2011 to 2013 Traveline Cymru received more funds for providing the telephone booking service than was taken from passengers in fares.

Who are the losers? Those people living in Cribyn and Llandysul who used to have a regular scheduled bus service have lost substantially. For many their lives have been ruined, youngsters have moved and others have resorted to using cars again. Taxpayers are losers too as has been shown above. The environmental costs are massive as well because the vehicles are running mostly empty or with just one or two people on them.

A public transport service in rural parts of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire should exist, regular and scheduled to the larger communities. Where people live in more remote communities, scheduled services can still be provided but maybe only once a day or even only once or twice a week. For those communities for whom it is impossible to provide a daily service, local taxi firms should be employed that could be supported by the NHS. Local taxi firms are more flexible, responsive to urgent need than the Bwcabus and will cost a mere fraction of the Bwcabus scheme.

It is absolutely time that this costly experiment comes to an end.

Yours etc

Elly Foster, Temple Bar

Peter Hoskins, Cwmann.