New cross-city bus links for Bath

In a series of improvements from Sunday 1^st September, the city’s largest bus operator has announced that service 3 (city centre to Bathford) will be extended to the Royal United Hospital and Upper Weston to provide an east to west cross-city route. There will also be changes to the timetable to improve punctuality.

And another new cross-city link will be created through the extension of service 13 (city centre to Elmhurst) to Foxhill, taking in Batheaston and London Road to provide a north to south connection. There will also be an extra journey in the mornings to Ralph Allen School.

Service 2 (city centre to Mulberry Park) will also be extended out to Foxhill, with the frequency of buses increasing to every 12 minutes.

The changes are part of a bi-annual review of routes by First West of England, and will come into force on Sunday 1st September. Other changes include:

• Services 4A and 4B (Weston to Odd Down Park and Ride) will be replaced by newly extended services 2 and 13, with the 13 following the same route as the 4A but running hourly instead of half hourly, and the 2 extending into Foxhill to provide more frequent buses into the city centre. The 3 and 4 will both run in the evenings, providing a service every 20 minutes between the city centre and the RUH.
• The route of service 19 (Bath city centre to Bristol Parkway) will change to create faster journeys and avoid severe congestion around the Bristol ring road. On its route to Bath, the service will bypass Frenchay, and instead travel from the University of the West of England (UWE) via Coldharbour Lane and Filton Road. A new service 50 will connect Frenchay more comprehensively from September.
• The frequency of services D2 and D2x* (Bath to Frome) will be improved to almost every half hour Monday to Saturday daytimes, and some journeys will be quicker as a result of bypassing the village of Rode during quieter periods. Daytime trips on the D2 service will also finish at Christchurch in Frome.

Further details about all the changes are available on the First West of England website and detailed timetables will be available in the coming weeks, and customer are advised to check their routes before travelling.

Rob Pymm, Commercial Director for First West of England, said: “We’re really pleased to be introducing new cross city routes in Bath, which we have successfully launched in Bristol. They are a great chance to provide more people the opportunity to travel by bus, while also connecting more parts of the city on a single bus route.

“We’ve also been able to look at the data for other routes in the city and nearby towns to make further improvements, by improving bus frequency and adjusting routes to provide services where they are most needed.

“With these improvements and adult and child single fares still at £2 and £1 respectively we’re making bus travel accessible to all to encourage our existing customers to use the bus more and new customers to give the bus a go.”

First Bus has consulted on the new routes with local authorities, including the West of England Combined Authority, ahead of them coming into effect in September.