Bus Services (Wales) Act 2026

PART 1 KEY CONCEPTS AND GENERAL OBJECTIVES

Key concepts

1 Meaning of “local bus service”

(1) For the purposes of this Act, a local bus service is a service for the carriage of passengers by road at separate fares, using one or more public service vehicles, that—

(a) meets the condition in subsection (3), and

(b) has one or more embarkation or disembarkation points in Wales.

(2) But references in this Act to a local bus service do not include references to—

(a) a section 19 service (for which see section 44(1));

(b) a Part 3 of Schedule 1 service (for which see section 44(1));

(c) an excursion or tour;

(d) a rail replacement service.

(3) A service meets the condition in this subsection if, in the case of each of its embarkation points—

(a) the next disembarkation point is under 15 miles away (when measured in a straight line), and

(b) there is no point on the route between that embarkation point and that disembarkation point that is 15 miles away, or more than 15 miles away, from either of them (when measured in a straight line).

(4) For the purposes of this section—

(a) “public service vehicle” has the meaning given in section 1 of the 1981 Act;

(b) “excursion or tour” has the meaning given in section 137(1) of the 1985 Act;

(c) a “rail replacement service” is a service for the carriage of passengers, as a substitute for a railway passenger service that is temporarily interrupted or that has been discontinued.

(5) Where a part of a non-qualifying service would meet the condition in subsection (3) if that part were a service in its own right, that part is itself to be treated as being a local bus service for the purposes of this Act other than the duty in section 5(1)(a).

(6) For the purposes of subsection (5) a “non-qualifying service” is a service (other than one within subsection (2)) for the carriage of passengers by road at separate fares, using one or more public service vehicles, which has one or more embarkation or disembarkation points in Wales, but which does not meet the condition in subsection (3).

(7) Subsection (5)(b) and (c) of section 1 of the 1981 Act (meaning of “fares”) applies for the purposes of this section.

2 Meaning of “embarkation point” and “disembarkation point”

In this Act—

(a) references to an “embarkation point”, in relation to a service, are to any point on its route at which embarkation onto the service is permitted (whether or not passengers are also permitted to disembark from the service at that point);

(b) references to a “disembarkation point”, in relation to a service, are to any point on its route at which disembarkation from the service is permitted, otherwise than in the case of an emergency (whether or not passengers are also permitted to embark on the service at that point).

3 Meaning of “flexible local bus service” and “standard local bus service”

In this Act—

(a) references to a “flexible local bus service” are to a local bus service which, regardless of the existence of any limited fixed sections of route, is in the entirety of its operation so flexible that it would not be practicable to identify its route for the purposes of the Welsh Bus Network Plan (see section 5(1)(b));

(b) references to a “standard local bus service” are to a local bus service that is not a flexible local bus service.

Objectives

4 Welsh Ministers’ duty to have regard to objectives

(1) In exercising any function under this Act, the Welsh Ministers must have regard to the following objectives.

(2) The first objective is to promote the use of local bus services.

(3) The second objective is continuously to improve the reliability, safety, affordability and accessibility of local bus services.

(4) The third objective is to work towards increasing the availability of local bus services.

(5) The fourth objective is to work towards achieving an integrated transport system.

(6) The fifth objective is to facilitate passenger journeys that involve using more than one local bus service.

(7) The sixth objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and waste from road transport.

(8) The seventh objective is to facilitate access by passengers using local bus services to places where education, training, health services or social care services are provided.

(9) The eighth objective is to work towards removing or reducing barriers that disincentivise the use of local bus services.

(10) In this section—

(a) “education” includes higher education;

(b) “greenhouse gas” has the same meaning as in Part 2 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 (anaw 3);

(c) “health services” means services provided under section 3 of the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006 (c. 42) (including services regarded for the purposes of the duty in subsection (1) of that section as being provided under that duty);

(d) “social care services” means services that are treated as being regulated services for the purposes of the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 (anaw 2).