The Welsh Parliament has given the green light for a bus services overhaul, putting ministers in the driving seat to decide routes, timetables and fares.

Senedd members voted 34-10, with two abstentions, in favour of a bill to replace the current system in which private operators decide most routes on a commercial basis.

A franchising model, similar to London’s, will be rolled out as Wales ditches deregulation introduced by the Thatcher government in the 1980s, with a 56 per cent fall in journeys since.

Under the bus bill, which lifts limits on councils running services, the Welsh Government will take control of the network, with Transport for Wales responsible for implementation.

The draft law was introduced because private operators often cut “socially necessary” but unprofitable routes, leaving people stranded and forcing ministers to step in with subsidies.

The new system, which has been about a decade in the making, will be introduced in phases over about five years in four regions, beginning in south-west Wales in 2027.

An impact assessment put the total costs of the reforms over 30 years at £623m - outweighed by estimated benefits of £3.6bn.

Ken Skates, Wales’ transport secretary, said passing the “landmark” bill will put people first in the design and delivery of bus services.

He told the Senedd: “It will restore growth to the industry and it will also help to create one network, one timetable, one ticket across public transport.”

But Sam Rowlands, the Conservatives’ shadow transport secretary, depicted the “rushed” plans as fundamentally flawed and overly focused on urban areas.

Warning rural Wales has been neglected, Mr Rowlands said: “One third of the population of Wales live in rural areas yet there is no clear vision for rural bus networks.”

He told Senedd members the franchising model will not work in Wales and risk creating a “one-size-fits-all” system that is “too rigid to respond to local needs”.

Mr Rowlands warned smaller bus operators could be pushed out and bemoaned a “once-in-a-generation” missed opportunity to create an accessible bus network.

Plaid Cymru’s Delyth Jewell backed the bill and welcomed amendments to include school transport when planning bus services, with a duty to consider access to education.

Jenny Rathbone, a Labour backbencher, described the bus bill as an “essential measure” to make better use of taxpayers’ money through a more rational system.

She said: “Currently, we have to lay on special school buses to transport secondary school pupils… because there’s no public bus to get them there. Instead, rival groups of public and private bus providers compete for the most profitable routes.”

Ms Rathbone told Senedd members it cost Cardiff almost as much to transport children with additional learning needs as it did to educate them last year.

Carolyn Thomas said the bill will address the issue of operators having to be heavily subsidised to take on less lucrative contracts in rural areas.

With no legal challenge expected following the final vote on 9 December, the bill should receive royal assent in the coming weeks.