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:
Thirty-eight-year-old Daryl Jones, who has been with First Cymru for almost 10 years and is based at the company’s Ravenhill depot in Swansea, was named the best competitor from a depot in Wales at the bus industry’s prestigious UK Bus Driver of the Year contest. The title also clinched him a £100 prize.
Suicide Prevention UK (SPUK), which is based in Bristol but offers a national helpline, says since its new project with First West of England launched in January - aimed at spotting the signs of suicide among passengers - an increasing number of callers mention buses when phoning for help.
Construction equipment has begun arriving at the Weston-super-Mare depot ahead of a £14.9million scheme, which will see the transformation of the two-football pitch sized site, just off the A370, and the arrival of 24 new electric buses on the Weston network next year.
In addition, £44 million is being invested in electrifying the operator’s Hengrove depot in Bristol alongside launching 74 electric buses on the city’s network. The Hengrove transformation is planned to get underway at the end of next month.
To be eligible, passengers can either wear their military uniform or show the bus driver their service ID card on Remembrance Sunday (10th November) and Armistice Day (Monday 11th November). It is available on all First Bus services apart from the Airport Flyer.
The free travel offer is being made available to make it as easy as possible for customers to get to and from remembrance services and events, and is also available on First Bus services across England, Wales and Scotland.
Inspired by their love of the First Bus journey between Glastonbury and Bristol, a group of four young multi-genre DJs have named themselves ‘3SEVEN6’ after the 376 bus service, and one of them has even had the service number tattooed across his stomach.
First West of England is joining forces with Westcountry charity Operation Community Hamper (OCH) on an eight-day tour of the region aboard a special open top Christmas carol bus to create 1,000 hampers for vulnerable families struggling in the cost-of-living crisis.
First Glasgow is set to adjust the cost of selected fares, including its Two-Trip, FirstWeek and First4Week tickets, from Sunday 4th August.
The city’s largest bus operator had frozen prices across all impacted tickets for the last 16 months, but increasing inflationary pressures related to rising fuel, energy, parts, and labour costs – similar to those being faced by many transport operators - have meant it was no longer feasible to keep fares at their previous level.
An 18-year-old volunteer from Glasgow shares how Scotland’s Young Person’s Free Bus Travel scheme allows him to support people affected by cancer.
Originally from Lagos, Nigeria, Abdulmuiz Adarangio moved to Clydebank just over a year ago and has been volunteering with Beatson Cancer Charity ever since he first spotted the charity’s yellow-wrapped bus, which was donated by First Bus last year to help raise awareness of the charity throughout the city.