Rhondda Cynon Taf Council has confirmed that cheaper bus travel will return for the Easter holidays, with single journeys capped at £1.50 for two weeks.
The subsidised fares will run from Saturday, March 28, to Sunday, April 12, 2026, and will apply across all bus operators for journeys that start and end within the Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough boundary.
The initiative marks the ninth time since summer 2023 that the council has introduced reduced bus fares, using funding from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund to support the scheme.
The council says the offer is aimed at helping residents access affordable public transport during key times of the year, such as school holidays and festive periods, while also helping to reduce the financial barriers that can prevent people from using local bus services.
The Easter offer follows a similar scheme introduced during December 2025, which also capped fares at £1.50 for single journeys within the county borough.
Under the initiative, all qualifying journeys will cost no more than £1.50, regardless of the time of day. The reduced fare will apply from the first bus service each day through to the final service in the evening, with no time restrictions.
Concessionary pass holders will still need to scan their passes as usual when boarding buses during the two week period.
However, journeys that either start or end outside the Rhondda Cynon Taf boundary will not be included in the scheme and will be charged at the standard fare.
Young passengers will continue to benefit from a separate Welsh Government initiative, which caps bus fares for those aged between five and 21 at a maximum of £1 for a single journey.
To access the £1 fare, all passengers aged 16 to 21 must show a valid My Travel Pass, while children under 16 can simply purchase a child single ticket. The youth fare scheme will continue unchanged alongside the council’s Easter travel offer.
Councillor Andrew Morgan OBE, Leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf Council and Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Investment, said: “This is the ninth separate occasion where the Council has been able to offer a period of subsidised bus travel, covering all journeys within Rhondda Cynon Taf – as we utilise the funding available from the UK Government. Capping all single bus journeys to £1.50, no matter where they start and end as long as it’s within the County Borough, will represent a significant saving that residents can take advantage of during the two-week Easter holiday, from March 28.
“Previous periods of subsidised bus travel have proven very popular with the public, as well as our local bus operators – which have reported a general trend of seeing more customers. We want to encourage more people to use the bus as part of their everyday journeys, to reduce the number of vehicles on our roads, bring down journey times, and protect the environment. We also know that the cost of living remains high, and initiatives like these can help break economic barriers that might prevent people from using public transport.
“We continue to welcome the support from the UK Government through its Shared Prosperity Fund, to enable us to deliver schemes like this – as we saw most-recently during the entire month of December 2025. In the current financial year (2025/26), we’ve benefitted from £1 million funding, which has followed the £1.2 million that we were able to secure last year (2024/25).”
