An interconnected community of communities

Plaid Cymru’s vision is of Wales as an interconnected community of communities, resilient, prosperous, healthy, and environmentally sound. Major public transport improvements will play a crucial role in our regeneration plans for Arfor in the west and for the Valleys. These would connect our disconnected regions and communities and maximise their economic potential.

Beyond completing road projects already in the Wales Infrastructure Investment Plan Project pipeline, our aim is for an integrated public transport system, with greater reliance on environmentally friendly modes of travel. We will develop a national timetable, integrating rail and bus services, with national standards on frequency of service making travel by public transport possible in most parts of Wales.

To streamline, simplify and shorten the process for making major transport decisions, we will publish a new Transport Strategy and a new National Transport Finance Plan reflecting our new priorities by the end of 2021. We will seek the relevant powers to implement a public transport payroll levy on employers in Wales. This will be used to fund climate-friendly public transport.

Plaid Cymru supports the re-regulation of bus services and we will introduce the legislation required to allow a system of bus franchising to be developed in Wales.

We would seek the devolution of the power over road tax and fuel duty and the HGV Levy so we can create a replacement Eco-levy based on road use, local availability of public transport and emissions. This would be more environmentally effective and socially just.