TrawsCymru, which provides medium and long distance express services in Wales, added Bristol to its network on Monday 4 January.
Newport Transport was awarded the contract to operate the TrawsHafren T7 service between Chepstow, Cribbs Causeway and Bristol City Centre on a hourly basis Monday to Saturday with four journeys on Sundays. The service also extends to and from Magor and Caldicot at peak periods.
To celebrate the launch of the service all passengers will travel free until 10 January. Normal day return tickets range from £7.50 for an Adult return and £5 for a Child. Local fares between Bristol and Cribbs Causeway are singles only and are £2 for an Adult or £1.30 for a Child.
The route was last operated by Comfort Delgro-owned Adventure Travel, in partnership with TrawsCymru and Monmouthshire Council, where it initially operated on a six-month pilot scheme to ensure the service kept running after Stagecoach West, and First West of England prior to that, gave the service up due to heavy traffic congestion and revenue losses. The joint six-month pilot scheme replacement service omitted Newport in a bid to improve reliability and also stopped opposite the Marlborough Street bus station rather than in it, so it could do a loop around the Saint James Barton Roundabout (aka ‘The Bearpit’) back towards Clifton Down and Cribbs Causeway.
Two MCV eVoRa-bodied Volvo B8RLE’s have moved from Stagecoach in South Wales to Newport Transport to operate the service.
