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
ParentNewport City Council
FoundedJuly 1, 1901 (1901-07-01)
HeadquartersCorporation Road, Newport
LocaleNewport, Wales
Service areaSouth Wales
Service typeBus
Routes45[1]
DestinationsCardiff
Chepstow
Monmouth
Newport Retail Park
Newport railway station
Cribbs Causeway
Bristol
HubsNewport bus station
FleetDiesel
75 OmniCity
7 Trident 2
7 Olympian
6 Meridian
5 Enviro400
Electric
15 Yutong E12 (ordered)
Midibus
18 Enviro200
18 ALX200
Annual ridership7.6 million[1]
Fuel typeDiesel
Electric
OperatorNewport Transport Limited[2]
Chair
Managing Director		Cllr Debbie Harvey[3]
Scott Pearson[4]
Websitewww.newportbus.co.uk

History

In 1901, the Newport Corporation took over the town's horse-drawn bus service, establishing a municipal bus operation.[5]

Motorbus services began in April 1924,[6] although the corporation was prohibited from running services beyond Rogerstone and Langstone without the assent of local councils by the Newport Corporation Act 1925.[5][7] This prohibition was removed in 1981, allowing then-Newport Borough Council to operate more extensive services.[5][8]

By 1985, the Borough Transport Department held responsibility for the town's bus services.[9][10] 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.[2] Initially named Newport Buses Ltd, the company was renamed Newport Transport Ltd on 9 October 1986,[2] before formally taking over operation of bus services in Newport from the Borough Transport Department on 26 October 1986.[9]

In the 1980s, Newport Transport was the largest operator of Scanias in the United Kingdom.[11] It also operated Renault 50 midibuses.[12]

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

After receiving a £1m grant from the Office of Low Emission Vehicles in February 2019,[13] the company placed an order for 15 fully-electric, zero-emission E12 buses from Yutong. The first demonstrator vehicle, funded by the grant, began operating in August 2019,[14] with the remaining vehicles expected to enter service in 2020.[15][16]

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.[17][18] 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.[18]

Services

Newport Bus operates a network of services from Newport bus station throughout the city; services extended as far as Chepstow in the east, Monmouth in the north, and Cardiff in the west.[19] The service to Cardiff is operated in partnership with Cardiff Bus.[20]
As of 4 January 2021, Newport Bus operates TrawsCymru route T7 that operates from Chepstow to Bristol via Cribbs Causeway.[21]


As of 2020, discussions are ongoing with Transport for Wales for the network to form part of the South Wales Metro rail and bus project.[22]

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[23] 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. "About Newport Bus". Newport Bus. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  2. "Newport Transport Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  3. https://democracy.newport.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=62
  4. "A Christmas Message". Newport Bus. 20 December 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  5. Millier, Noel (5 September 1981). "Newport plays the Scania variations". Commercial Motor. pp. 27–29. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  6. "Cardiff and Newport as Bus Centres". Commercial Motor. 3 April 1928. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  7. "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.
  8. "The Newport (Revocation of Restrictions) Order 1981". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  9. 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.
  10. "About Newport Transport". Newport Transport. Archived from the original on 5 December 2003. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  11. "Newport sticks with Scanias". Commercial Motor. 20 September 1986. p. 20. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  12. "Renault order well received". Commercial Motor. 7 January 1988. p. 17. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  13. "Electric buses for Cardiff and Caerphilly win funding". BBC News. 6 February 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  14. Bird, Nelli (19 August 2019). "Electric buses: Wales' first to hit the roads in Newport". BBC News. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  15. "Announcing our own fleet of zero emission fully electric buses" (Press release). Newport Transport. 5 June 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  16. "Newport Transport orders electric Yutong fleet". Coach & Bus Week. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  17. "Newport Bus to launch contactless fare payment from Sunday". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  18. "Make the switch to zero emissions with Newport Bus". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  19. "Journey Planner - Route Timetable 2020". Newport Bus. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  20. "New Service X30". Newport Transport. 19 November 2007. Archived from the original on 1 January 2008. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  21. https://www.newportbus.co.uk/traws-hafren-t7-route
  22. Barry, Sion (7 December 2015). "The South Wales Metro project explained". walesonline. Archived from the original on 2 August 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  23. Thomas, DB; Thomas, EA (1982). Trams and Buses of Newport 1845 to 1981. ISBN 0903434482.

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