Newport Bus (the operating name of Newport Transport Limited) is the main provider of bus services in the city of

Newport, Wales Newport ( cy, Casnewydd; ) is a city and county borough in Wales, situated on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, northeast of Cardiff. With a population of 145,700 at the 2011 census, Newport is the third-larges ...

. A

limited company In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by shares, the li ...

whose shares are wholly owned by

Newport City Council Newport City Council () is the governing body for Newport, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. It consists of 51 councillors, who represent the city's 20 wards. The council is currently, and has historically been, held by the Labour Party. ...

, it is one of the few remaining municipal bus companies in the United Kingdom.

History

In 1901, the Newport Corporation took over the town's horse-drawn bus service, establishing a municipal bus operation. Motorbus services began in April 1924, although the corporation was prohibited from running services beyond Rogerstone and Langstone without the assent of local councils by the Newport Corporation Act 1925. This prohibition was removed in 1981, allowing then-Newport Borough Council to operate more extensive services. By 1985, the Borough Transport Department held responsibility for the town's bus services. Following passage of the

Transport Act 1985 The Transport Act 1985 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It introduced privatised and deregulated bus services throughout Great Britain and came into effect in October of 1986. The Act was created as a response to growing concern ...

, 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. Initially named Newport Buses Ltd, the company was renamed Newport Transport Ltd on 9 October 1986, before formally taking over operation of bus services in Newport from the Borough Transport Department on 26 October 1986. In the 1980s, Newport Transport was the largest operator of Scanias in the United Kingdom. It also operated Renault 50

midibus A midibus is a classification of single-decker minibuses which are generally larger than a traditional minibus but smaller than a full-size single decker and can be anywhere between and long. While used in many parts of the world, the mi ...

es. 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, 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, with the remaining vehicles entering service in 2020, the first electric buses to operate in Wales. Following additional funding of £2.8 million from the UK

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The ...

(DfT) and commercial partnerships, a further 16 Yutong vehicles were ordered in April 2021. On 1 March 2020, the company introduced the

Ticketer Ticketer is the brand name for a range of electronic ticket machines provided by British company Corvia Ltd, primarily for usage on buses. The "innovative" cloud-based system, first marketed on a small scale in 2008, has since developed into ...

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsung ...

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 code A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about t ...

s from paper day/week tickets. 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. On 18 May 2020, in partnership with

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; cy, Trafnidiaeth Cymru; cy, TrC, label=none) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) cons ...

(TfW), and its parent local council, Newport Bus transferred some of its routes to Fflecsi, a

demand responsive transport Demand-responsive transport (DRT), also known as demand-responsive transit, demand-responsive service,
US National Trans ...

service in the city, in which Newport Bus continues to operate the service but is commanded by TfW. The scheme is to end on 25 September 2022.

Services

Newport Bus operates a network of services from

Newport bus station Newport Central bus station ( cy, Gorsaf fysiau Canol Casnewydd) is a bus terminus and interchange located in the city centre, Newport, South Wales. It is the largest road transport hub for public services in the county. It is situated on the ...

throughout the city; services extend as far as

Chepstow Chepstow ( cy, Cas-gwent) is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the wester ...

in the east, including three local services within Chepstow,

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. ...

in the north, and

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

in the west. Route 30 to Cardiff is operated in partnership with Cardiff Bus. As of 4 January 2021, Newport Bus operates TrawsCymru route T7 from Chepstow to Bristol via Cribbs Causeway. , discussions are ongoing with TfW for the network to form part of the

South Wales Metro The South Wales Metro () is an integrated heavy rail, light rail and bus-based public transport services and systems network in South East Wales around the hub of . The first phase was approved for development in October 2013. Works are current ...

rail and bus project. The company operates Fflecsi services in two zones (1 and 26) centred on Rogerstone and

St. Julian's Saint Julian's ( mt, San Ġiljan) is a town in the Central Region of Malta. As of 2020, its registered number of inhabitants stands at 13,792. It is situated along the coast, north of the country's capital, Valletta. It is known for tourism-or ...

respectively (overlapping in the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

), 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 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. 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 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.

Gallery

File:Newport Bus Station - geograph.org.uk - 1781614.jpg, Metro-Scania at

in 1976 File:Newport Bus in Cardiff Central station.JPG,

Scania OmniCity The Scania OmniCity is an integrally constructed transverse-engined low floor city bus that was available from Scania on the European market between 1997 and 2012. The OmniCity was introduced in September 1996 as the first product based on t ...

at Cardiff Central bus station in May 2014 File:Wood St, Cardiff (16868988178).jpg,

Alexander Dennis Enviro400 The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 is a twin-axle low-floor double-decker bus that was built by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis between 2005 and 2018. It replaced the Alexander ALX400, Dennis Trident (from which the Enviro400 was d ...

in Cardiff in April 2015

References

External links

Newport Bus website
{{authority control Bus operators in Wales Bus operators in Bristol Companies based in Newport, Wales Companies owned by municipalities of Wales Transport companies established in 1901 Transport in Caerphilly County Borough Transport in Newport, Wales Transport in Torfaen 1901 establishments in Wales