Cardiff Council must rule out a commuter tax which it has discussed since 2023, said a prominent Welsh Tory.
Andrew RT Davies has called for Cardiff Council to rule out a “commuter tax” after Cardiff MS Jenny Rathbone last week suggested that one way to “encourage” more people to use trains was to introduce congestion charging and said that Cardiff Council had discussed this option in the past.
The Council announced in 2023 that it would investigate ideas for road user charging in the capital.
Andrew RT Davies MS, Senedd Member for South Wales Central and former Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, said, “Residents in Cardiff, the Vale and RCT will be deeply concerned about plans for a commuter tax.
“With council tax skyrocketing across the area, charging people for getting to work in their cars will only compound that hardship.
“Cardiff Council must now rule out introducing a commuter tax and back our workforce, rather than treat them like cash cows.”
The issue was raised just days after Transport for Wales was shown to have one of the worst reliability records in Britain.
Cancellation rates at Wales’ busiest train stations are well above the British national average of 3.3%. Newport tops the list with 5.4% of services cancelled, followed by Cardiff Queen Street (4.3%), Cathays (4.1%), Treforest and Wrexham (both 4%), and Cardiff Central (3.8%).
Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Transport & Infrastructure, Sam Rowlands MS said, “For Wales to be performing worse than both England and Scotland on cancellations shows that far more must be done to deliver a reliable transport network.
“Labour has poured more than £1 billion into Transport for Wales, it’s high time commuters saw a real improvement in services and a return on that investment of taxpayers’ money.
“Cancellation rates at our busiest stations are higher than the British average. From Newport to Cardiff, Cathays to Wrexham, reliability is slipping across the network and commuters are being badly let down.”
