Cardiff's highest-grossing bus lane cameras have been revealed in new FOI data - with the city's most lucrative camera collecting more than £300,000 in a single year from more than 50,000 fines in total. In 2023, the highest-grossing camera was in Kingsway, opposite the Hilton Hotel - with 11,737 fines issued and a hefty £324,057 received.

Narrowly behind it were lanes in Newport Road (near bridge) (9,125 fines totalling £244,188) and Custom House Street westbound (£149,601) and eastbound (£132,336). From 50,857 fines, bus lane cameras grossed a total of £1,282,459 in 2023 - the most since 2019, when the figure was more than double that at £2,616,999.

The council said surplus income from penalty charge notices was spent on public transport, parking and roads. You can use the interactive graph below to see which bus lanes collected the most fines, and the most money, in 2023.

The Kingsway camera has grossed £734,555 since 2019, but this includes two years in which the camera collected no fines as traffic restrictions in the area changed. Over the full five-year period, cameras in Custom House Street brought in the most money for the council - £965,119 for the westbound camera, and £874,037 eastbound.

When you add the amount the council recoups in fines for driving in yellow box junctions, banned turns, no-entry roads and bus stops, the total for 2023 is £3,366,571 (as of an FOI response earlier in January). The cameras were first switched on in 2014, and in bus lanes alone they've grossed £6,987,414 in the last five years.

Some cameras have gone offline since 2019 (including Duke Street and North Road, becoming redundant when Castle Street was re-opened to traffic post-Covid, and Newport Road where a new cycleway changed the road layout). For the latest Cardiff news, sign up to our newsletter here.

PCNs are issued at £70 each, but can be paid at £35 within 21 days. If you receive one, you can either pay it or appeal. All figures for the amount recouped - especially the more recent ones - are subject to change as fines are paid or increased for non-payment.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/cardiff-bus-lane-hands-out-28490148