In 1901, the Newport Corporation took over the town's horse-drawn bus service, establishing a municipal bus operation.[6]
Motorbus services began in April 1924,[7] although the corporation was prohibited from running services beyond Rogerstone and Langstone without the assent of local councils by the Newport Corporation Act 1925.[6][8] This prohibition was removed in 1981, allowing then-Newport Borough Council to operate more extensive services.[6][9]
By 1985, the Borough Transport Department held responsibility for the town's bus services.[10][11] Following passage of the Transport Act 1985, 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.[3] Initially named Newport Buses Ltd, the company was renamed Newport Transport Ltd on 9 October 1986,[3] before formally taking over operation of bus services in Newport from the Borough Transport Department on 26 October 1986.[10]
In the 1980s, Newport Transport was the largest operator of Scanias in the United Kingdom.[12] It also operated Renault 50midibuses.[13]
The bus operation was rebranded from Newport Transport to Newport Bus in 2011.[citation needed]
After receiving a £1 million grant from the Office of Low Emission Vehicles in February 2019,[14] 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,[15] with the remaining vehicles entering service in 2020,[16][17] the first electric buses to operate in Wales.[18] Following additional funding of £2.8 million from the UK Department for Transport (DfT) and commercial partnerships, a further 16 Yutong vehicles were ordered in April 2021.[19]
On 1 March 2020, the company introduced the Ticketercontactless payment 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 codes from paper day/week tickets.[20][21] 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.[21]
On 18 May 2020, in partnership with Transport for Wales (TfW), and its parent local council, Newport Bus transferred some of its routes to Fflecsi, a demand responsive transport service in the city, in which Newport Bus continues to operate the service but is commanded by TfW.[22] The scheme is to end on 25 September 2022.[23]
Services
Newport Bus operates a network of services from Newport bus station throughout the city; services extend as far as Chepstow in the east, including three local services within Chepstow, Monmouth in the north, and Cardiff in the west.[24] Route 30 to Cardiff is operated in partnership with Cardiff Bus.[25]
As of 4 January 2021, Newport Bus operates TrawsCymru route T7 from Chepstow to Bristol via Cribbs Causeway.[26]
As of 2020[update], discussions are ongoing with TfW for the network to form part of the South Wales Metro rail and bus project.[27]
The company operates Fflecsi services in two zones (1 and 26) centred on Rogerstone and St. Julian's respectively (overlapping in the city centre), 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[28][29] 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.[30]
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[31] 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.
^"Bus Developments in South Wales". Commercial Motor. 4 August 1925. Retrieved 28 April 2020. These [extra-boundary] services are to be established under the newly obtained powers of the authority under which the assent of the local councils concerned in the routes had to be obtained.
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