Extra journeys, routes extended and services restored on Cymru’s bus network
First Cymru has announced changes to its network from next month to help improve the reliability of bus services.
A host of improvements to the company’s bus routes in south and west Wales will see some services restored, extra journeys added and routes extended from 1st September.
In Swansea, service 2A (Swansea to Bracelet Bay) will be extended to provide an hourly Sunday service to Newton, while in Neath Port Talbot service X3 will be extended to Sunnycroft Roundabout via Dinas Baglan Road, resulting in a service being restored to the Baglan area.
Other changes include:
Swansea - more evening journeys on service 4 (Singleton Hospital to Morriston Hospital) to provide improved transport for NHS staff at shift finish times; changes to timetables to make them easier to understand on services 12 and 13 (Swansea to Townhill/Mayhill); additional journeys on services 25 (Swansea to Blaen-Y-Maes), 111 (Swansea to Llanelli) and 31 (Swansea to Morriston) with the latter providing improved transport for school children. In addition, three school day journeys on service 33 will instead be provided by service 31.
An additional stop will also be added to service 964 (Treboeth - Gower College Swansea) to assist students. In other changes, service X6 (Swansea - Pontardawe/Alltwen/Ystradgynlais) will provide a quicker route to Swansea Valley by not serving some stops in Plasmarl, which will instead be served by service 4 (Singleton Hospital - Morriston Hospital). Similarly, the timetable of service 14 (Swansea – Pennard) is being changed to remove some under-used stops to improve reliability.
Neath Port Talbot - additional evening journeys will be provided on services 87 (Neath to Sandfields) and X1 (Swansea – Bridgend) between Bridgend and Port Talbot. In addition, the X1 will also be re-routed to include Westlands housing estate in Port Talbot.
There may also be changes on other routes, and customers are advised to check timetables before travelling ahead of the 1st September changes. Further details about all the changes, including detailed timetables, are available on the First Cymru website.
Rob Pymm, Commercial Director for First Cymru, said: “By taking on board customer and local authority feedback, and by looking at our data, I’m really pleased that we’re continuing to make improvements to our bus network in Cymru.
“As well as restoring and extending routes, it’s great news for travellers that we’re also adding extra journeys to some services, and where we are adjusting timetables, we’ve looked at the data to ensure we can make services more reliable while reducing the impact on customers.
“With all of these improvements and Tap On, Tap Off technology on all our Cymru services making it easier for customers to travel, we’re making bus travel accessible and encouraging more people to use the bus.”
First Cymru has consulted on some of the changes with local authorities ahead of them coming into effect next month.