Newport Bus

Newport Bus (the operating name of Newport Transport Limited) is the main provider of bus services in the city of Newport, Wales. A limited company whose shares are wholly owned by Newport City Council, it is one of the few remaining municipal bus companies in the United Kingdom.

Newport Bus
Bws Casnewydd
Yutong E12 at Friars Walk in May 2023
ParentNewport City Council
Founded1 July 1901 (1901-07-01)
HeadquartersCorporation Road, Newport
LocaleNewport, Wales
Service areaSouth Wales
Service typeBus
Routes73 (including school routes) [1]
DestinationsCardiff
Chepstow
Monmouth
Newport
Cribbs Causeway
Bristol
Lydney
HubsNewport bus station
Annual ridership7.6 million[2]
Fuel typeDiesel
Electric
OperatorNewport Transport Limited[3]
Chair
Managing Director		Cllr Debbie Harvey[4]
Scott Pearson[5]
Websitewww.newportbus.co.uk

History

In 1901, the Newport Corporation took over the town's horse-drawn bus service, establishing a municipal bus operation.[6]

Motorbus services began in April 1924,[7] although the corporation was prohibited from running services beyond Rogerstone and Langstone without the assent of local councils by the Newport Corporation Act 1925.[6][8] This prohibition was removed in 1981, allowing then-Newport Borough Council to operate more extensive services.[6][9]

By 1985, the Borough Transport Department held responsibility for the town's bus services.[10][11] Following passage of the Transport Act 1985, which deregulated the UK bus network and required local councils to transfer the functions of their bus operations to commercial entities, a stand-alone company limited by shares was incorporated on 10 March 1986.[3] Initially named Newport Buses Ltd, the company was renamed Newport Transport Ltd on 9 October 1986,[3] before formally taking over operation of bus services in Newport from the Borough Transport Department on 26 October 1986.[10]

In the 1980s, Newport Transport was the largest operator of Scanias in the United Kingdom.[12] It also operated Renault 50 midibuses.[13]

The bus operation was rebranded from Newport Transport to Newport Bus in 2011.

After receiving a £1 million grant from the Office of Low Emission Vehicles in February 2019,[14] the company placed an order for 15 fully-electric, zero-emission Yutong E12 buses. The first demonstrator vehicle, funded by the grant, began operating in August 2019,[15] with the remaining vehicles entering service in 2020,[16][17] the first electric buses to operate in Wales.[18] Following additional funding of £2.8 million from the UK Department for Transport (DfT) and commercial partnerships, a further 16 Yutong vehicles were ordered in April 2021.[19]

On 1 March 2020, the company introduced the Ticketer contactless payment system on all its routes, a system used by Cardiff Bus since 2018, enabling payment by card and NFC-enabled devices, as well as recognition of QR codes from paper day/week tickets.[20][21] The company also aims to provide ticket sales and journey tracking though a mobile app in the first half of 2020, to be followed by real-time bus information.[21]

On 18 May 2020, in partnership with Transport for Wales (TfW), and its parent local council, Newport Bus transferred some of its routes to Fflecsi, a demand responsive transport service in the city, in which Newport Bus continues to operate the service but is commanded by TfW.[22] The scheme is to end on 25 September 2022.[23]

Services

Newport Bus operates a network of services from Newport bus station throughout the city; services extend as far as Chepstow in the east, including three local services within Chepstow, Monmouth in the north, and Cardiff in the west.[24] Route 30 to Cardiff is operated in partnership with Cardiff Bus.[25]

As of 4 January 2021, Newport Bus operates TrawsCymru route T7 from Chepstow to Bristol via Cribbs Causeway.[26]

As of 2020, discussions are ongoing with TfW for the network to form part of the South Wales Metro rail and bus project.[27]

The company operates Fflecsi services in two zones (1 and 26) centred on Rogerstone and St. Julian's respectively (overlapping in the city centre), which replaced solely operated Newport Bus routes 1, 1B, 11A and 11C in Zone 1, and 26A and 26C in Zone 2. The service is a trial project, but was extended beyond the initial time frame[28][29] for a further year following funding by TfW. The Fflecsi scheme is to end after 25 September 2022 and Newport Bus has introduced or amended other routes from 4 September 2022 as a replacement.[30]

The company also offers various commercial transport services.

Livery

The original pre-war livery of maroon was changed to green and cream in the 1940s[31] and remained the same until August 2009, when it was replaced with a livery of dark green and white with lime green and grey logos at the rear. From 2018, a new livery of all-over green was introduced.

References
  1. "Routes & Maps". Newport Bus. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  2. "About Newport Bus". Newport Bus. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  3. "Newport Transport Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  4. "Councillor details - Councillor Debbie Harvey". democracy.newport.gov.uk. 2 March 2022.
  5. "A Christmas Message". Newport Bus. 20 December 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  6. Millier, Noel (5 September 1981). "Newport plays the Scania variations". Commercial Motor. pp. 27–29. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  7. "Cardiff and Newport as Bus Centres". Commercial Motor. 3 April 1928. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  8. "Bus Developments in South Wales". Commercial Motor. 4 August 1925. Retrieved 28 April 2020. These [extra-boundary] services are to be established under the newly obtained powers of the authority under which the assent of the local councils concerned in the routes had to be obtained.
  9. "The Newport (Revocation of Restrictions) Order 1981". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  10. Newport Transport Limited. Newport Transport Limited, Directors Report on the Accounts for the Period 10th March 1986 to 31st March 1987 (PDF) (Report). Companies House. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  11. "About Newport Transport". Newport Transport. Archived from the original on 5 December 2003. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  12. "Newport sticks with Scanias". Commercial Motor. 20 September 1986. p. 20. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  13. "Renault order well received". Commercial Motor. 7 January 1988. p. 17. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  14. "Electric buses for Cardiff and Caerphilly win funding". BBC News. 6 February 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  15. Bird, Nelli (19 August 2019). "Electric buses: Wales' first to hit the roads in Newport". BBC News. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  16. "Announcing our own fleet of zero emission fully electric buses" (Press release). Newport Transport. 5 June 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  17. "Newport Transport orders electric Yutong fleet". Coach & Bus Week. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  18. Burkitt, Sean (8 October 2020). "First electric buses in Wales to launch next week in Newport". WalesOnline. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  19. Searle, Joshua (17 April 2021). "New fully-electric buses set to hit streets of Newport". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  20. "Newport Bus to launch contactless fare payment from Sunday". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  21. "Make the switch to zero emissions with Newport Bus". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  22. "Fflecsi Service". Newport Bus. 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  23. Thomas, Nicolas (12 August 2022). "Newport Fflecsi bus scheme ending after trial scheme". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  24. "Journey Planner - Route Timetable 2020". Newport Bus. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  25. "30 Cardiff to Newport". Cardiff Bus. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  26. "Traws Hafren T7 Route". Archived from the original on 29 December 2020.
  27. Barry, Sion (7 December 2015). "The South Wales Metro project explained". walesonline. Archived from the original on 2 August 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  28. O'Neill, Ryan (4 September 2020). "Newport Bus is not axing its fflecsi bus service after all". WalesOnline. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  29. "Newport". Transport For Wales. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  30. Moody, Tom (31 August 2022). "Newport Bus changes as Fflecsi bus trial comes to an end". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  31. Thomas, DB; Thomas, EA (1982). Trams and Buses of Newport 1845 to 1981. ISBN 0903434482.

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