Somerset town latest to get new bus link to Bristol

From September 1st, the county’s largest bus operator will extend its existing service 376 to Yeovil, connecting it to Bristol via Street, Glastonbury and Wells. It will replace the existing service 77 (Wells to Yeovil). In addition, a 376x express journey will be introduced in the mornings between Wells and Yeovil.

Connecting a Somerset town to Bristol is the latest in a series of bus improvements across the county, following the introduction earlier this year of services to the city from Taunton (service 374) and Bridgwater (375).

The changes are part of a bi-annual review of routes by First West of England. Others include:

• A new service 373 (Wells to Street) will be introduced serving the residential area of Windmill Hill in Glastonbury, following the withdrawal of 374 (Taunton to Bristol) and 375 (Bridgwater to Bristol) from the estate because of low passenger numbers. This will improve journey times and punctuality on both services.
• There will be some changes to the timetable of the 174 (Wells to Bath via Shepton Mallet) to improve punctuality, including the fact that some Sunday morning journeys will be operated as service 171 (Wells to Bath), which will not serve Shepton Mallet because of low passenger numbers.

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: “Our ambition to link our urban routes in Bristol to our local routes in Somerset has proved really popular since we connected Taunton and Bridgwater in April.

“I’m therefore really pleased that we’re extending this further by connecting Yeovil to Bristol, creating new direct links for adults whose £2 single fare will cost as little as 5p per mile along the whole route, demonstrating the great value that bus travel offers.

“Encouraging more people to travel by bus can only be good news for Somerset and the wider West of England region, and allows us to invest more in our network to improve routes, provide more buses and new services, and improve punctuality.

“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 travel more and encourage new customers to give the bus a go.”

First Bus has consulted on the new routes with local authorities, including Somerset Council, ahead of them coming into effect in September.