1.
Transport in Wales
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Transport in Wales is heavily influenced by the countrys geography. Wales is predominantly hilly or mountainous, and the main settlements lie on the coasts of North and South Wales, the main transport corridors are east-west routes, many continuing eastwards into England. Wales railway network developed in conjunction with that of the rest of the United Kingdom during the nineteenth century, the North Wales Coast Line and South Wales Main Line sought to profit from traffic between London and Ireland. Numerous railways were built to export coal and iron from South Wales, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, tourism was booming and railways served resorts such as Llandudno, Barry Island and locations along the Cambrian Coast Line. The network was rationalised during the century, with mainly east-west routes retained. As a result, the network within Wales is no longer contiguous. Devolution led to the formation of a franchise for Wales in 2003. This franchise, which includes some lines in England for completeness, is currently operated by Arriva Trains Wales. As rail usage has grown during the past decades, several lines have seen rail services reintroduced, including the Cardiff City Line, the Vale of Glamorgan Line. As of 2008, there are 923 miles of railways in Wales. Arriva Trains Wales operate all mainline services wholly within Wales and these range from rural lines such as the Welsh Marches Line to the Cardiff commuter lines, and long distance routes between North and South Wales, via Chester, Wrexham and Shrewsbury. They also operate services from Wales to Manchester, Crewe, Birmingham, services to London are operated by First Great Western and Virgin Trains. First Great Western also operate services from Cardiff to Portsmouth via Bristol, Bath and Southampton, the bulk of rail transport in Wales today is concentrated in the south with Cardiff Central, Cardiff Queen Street, Newport, Swansea and Bridgend being the busiest stations. Most passengers travel on east-west routes, in 2005/06, there were approximately 20.1 million rail passenger journeys beginning or ending in Wales, including 13 million starting and ending in Wales. Cardiff was the destination for almost 40 per cent of these journeys, in the north, the bulk of rail travel is concentrated around Wrexham General, Wrexham Central and Llandudno Junction to Chester section. The main South Wales Main Line and the central Valley Lines are being electrified, the only form of commuter rail system in Wales is the Valley Lines network serving Cardiff and the South Wales valleys, serving 20 stations in Cardiff and 61 stations in the surrounding area. Train frequency at the core of the network is up to every 5 minutes, the only surviving tram service within Wales is the Great Orme Tramway, a cable hauled tramway in Llandudno which survives as a tourist attraction. Cardiff, Swansea and Newport had extensive tram systems until the mid 20th century, plans were mooted for a modern tram system to serve Cardiffs urban areas in late 1990s but these were shelved due to the costs of building and maintaining such a system
2.
Newport, Wales
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Newport is a cathedral and university city and unitary authority area in south east Wales. It is located on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, at the 2011 census it is the third largest city in Wales, with a city population of 145,700 and an urban population of 306,844. The city forms part of the Cardiff-Newport metropolitan area with a population of 1,097,000, Newport has been a port since medieval times, when the first Newport Castle was built by the Normans. The town outgrew the earlier Roman town of Caerleon, immediately upstream and it grew significantly in the 19th century, when its port became the focus of coal exports from the eastern valleys of South Wales. Until the rise of Cardiff from the 1850s, Newport was Wales largest coal-exporting port and it was the site of the last large-scale armed insurrection in Britain, the Newport Rising of 1839 led by the Chartists. During the 20th century, when the docks declined in importance and it was granted city status in 2002. Newport hosted the Ryder Cup in 2010, the city was the venue for the 2014 NATO summit. It is the largest urban area within the county boundaries of Monmouthshire. The City of Newport, which includes surrounding rural areas as well as the built up area, is governed by Newport City Council. Bronze Age fishermen settled around the estuary of the River Usk. In AD75, on the edge of their empire. According to legend, in the late 5th century Saint Woolos church was founded by Saint Gwynllyw, the church was certainly in existence by the 9th century and today has become Newport Cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of Monmouth. The Normans arrived from around 1088–1093 to build the first Newport Castle and river crossing downstream from Caerleon, the settlement of Newport is first mentioned as novo burgus established by Robert, Earl of Gloucester in 1126. The name was derived from the original Latin name Novus Burgus, the city can sometimes be found labelled as Newport-on-Usk on old maps. The original Welsh language name for the city, Casnewydd-ar-Wysg means New castle-on-Usk, the original Newport Castle was a small motte-and-bailey castle in the park opposite Newport Cathedral. It was buried in rubble excavated from the Hillfield railway tunnels that were dug under Stow Hill in the 1840s and no part of it is currently visible. Around the settlement, the new town grew to become Newport, obtaining its first charter in 1314 and was granted a second one, by Hugh Stafford, in the 14th century friars came to Newport where they built an isolation hospital for infectious diseases. After its closure the hospital lived on in the place name Spitty Fields, austin Friars also remains a street name in the city
3.
First Cymru
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First Cymru is an operator of bus services in South Wales. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup with its headquarters in Penlan, in 1987, South Wales Transport was sold during the privatisation of the National Bus Company in a management buy out. In February 1990, along with Brewers Motor Services and United Welsh Coaches, all initially retained their trading names but following Badgerline merging with GRT Group in April 1995 to form FirstBus, all Welsh operations were rebranded as First Cymru. The company operates a bus rapid transit route in Swansea, branded Swansea Metro, for students of Swansea University, Unibus service 8 links the Hendrefoelan Student Village, Singleton Park Campus and Bay Campus to Swansea City Centre. They also run an hourly shuttle bus between Singleton Park Campus and Bay Campus called 8X and service 10 linking Singleton Park Campus and Bay Campus with student areas Uplands. These replaced the 82a and 85, First Cymru operates park & ride sites, which are located at Fabian Way and Landore in Swansea and Nant-Y-Ci in Carmarthen. They also operate a summer park & ride in Tenby, First Cymru operate an hourly shuttle service between Cardiff, Bridgend Designer Outlet and Swansea called the X10. This replaced a Greyhound UK service in December 2015, in 2014, First Cymru started the Cymru Clipper express network which spans from Carmarthen to Cardiff. Services X1, X2, X3, X4, X11, X13, X50, X51, X55, dedicated vehicles operate these services, with the majority of them offering WiFi and leather seats as standard. First Cymru operate a bus rapid transport route between Singleton Hospital, Swansea University, Swansea City Centre and Morriston Hospital as Swansea Metro, on 28 August 2015 the fleet of Wright StreetCar articulated buses that operated the service were replaced by conventional buses and had lost the FTRmetro branding. First Cymru operate eight depots in Bridgend, Cardiff, Haverfordwest, Llanelli, Port Talbot, Tycroes, Maesteg, Transport in Wales List of bus operators of the United Kingdom Bus transport in Cardiff Company website Media related to First Cymru at Wikimedia Commons
4.
Newport city centre
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Most of the city centre is contained within two conservation areas, the central area and the area around Lower Dock Street. Most of the city centre is located in the Stow Hill district, the main shopping thoroughfare is Commercial Street, which forms part of the north-south axis of High Street, Commercial Street and Commercial Road, linking the heart of the city with Newport Docks. The streets were laid-out in 1807 by Sir Charles Morgans Tredegar Wharf Company to connect the expanding docks with the roads in the centre. The area between Commercial Street and the used to contain a mixture of railway lines and river wharves so the street pattern in this area was never fixed. On the removal of the lines and wharves in the 1960s the large John Frost Square and Kingsway Shopping Centre were built. This area has been redeveloped to provide the Friars Walk shopping, as part of this redevelopment, the Chartist Mural was destroyed. Towards the northern end of Newport city centre is Westgate Square, here, the five roads of Commercial Street, Stow Hill, Bridge Street, High Street and Skinner Street converge. This is generally regarded as the centre although the actual centre, from Bridge Street, the two roads of High Street and Cambrian Road run in parallel towards Newport railway station. Joining the two roads is the covered Victorian Newport Arcade, at the western end of the arcade is the Cambrian Centre which is being redeveloped. To the east of High Street is Newport Market, a Grade II-listed building, the city centre is currently being expanded to include areas on the east bank. The plan shows a strong urban form along the riverfront, emphasised with tall landmark buildings, the citys major sports stadium, at Rodney Parade on the east bank of the River Usk, is a short walk from the city centre via Newport Bridge or Newport City footbridge. Many of the city centre businesses are located on Bridge Street. In 2014 Admiral Insurance opened a newly constructed office opposite Newport railway station. Newports city centre shops are concentrated along the pedestrianised High Street, Commercial Street, Friars Walk shopping and leisure complex and, linked by John Frost Square, the adjoining Kingsway Shopping Centre are the main under-cover shopping areas. The city centre has suffered from competition from Cwmbran Shopping Centre and out-of-town shopping areas at Newport Retail Park to the east and retail parks around Maesglas to the west. The protracted development of Friars Walk was also cited as a reason for high street stores, such as Marks and Spencer, the Cambrian Centre is a small shopping centre in Newport city centre. Among other units, it houses a Somerfield and one of the citys Wetherspoons public houses, the John Wallace Linton, an alternative redevelopment plan was due to start in 2012
5.
South Wales
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South Wales is the region of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the southwest of the United Kingdom, the Brecon Beacons national park covers about a third of South Wales, containing Pen y Fan, the highest mountain south of Snowdonia. Areas to the north of the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains are generally considered part of Mid Wales, the expression south Wales is not officially defined, and its meaning has changed over time. Between the Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284 and the Laws in Wales Act 1535 and this was divided into a Principality of South Wales and a Principality of North Wales. The southern principality was made up of the counties of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, the legal responsibility for this area lay in the hands of the Justiciar of South Wales based at Carmarthen. Other parts of southern Wales were in the hands of various Marcher Lords, the Laws in Wales Acts 1542 created the Court of Great Sessions in Wales based on four legal circuits. The Brecon circuit served the counties of Brecknockshire, Radnorshire and Glamorgan while the Carmarthen circuit served Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Monmouthshire was attached to the Oxford circuit for judicial purposes. These seven southern counties were thus differentiated from the six counties of north Wales, the Court of the Great Sessions came to an end in 1830, but the counties survived until the Local Government Act 1972 which came into operation in 1974. The creation of the county of Powys merged one northern county with two southern ones, there are thus different concepts of south Wales. Glamorgan and Monmouthshire are generally accepted by all as being in south Wales, but the status of Breconshire or Carmarthenshire, for instance, is more debatable. In the western extent, from Swansea westwards, local people might feel that they live in both south Wales and west Wales, areas to the north of the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains are generally considered to be in Mid Wales. A further point of uncertainty is whether the first element of the name should be capitalized, as the name is a geographical expression rather than a specific area with well-defined borders, style guides such as those of the BBC and The Guardian use the form south Wales. The most densely populated region in the southwest of the United Kingdom, the Brecon Beacons national park covers about a third of South Wales, containing Pen y Fan, the highest mountain south of Snowdonia. This natural beauty changed to an extent during the early Industrial Revolution when the Glamorgan and Monmouthshire valley areas were exploited for coal. By the 1830s, hundreds of tons of coal were being transported by barge to ports in Cardiff, lord Bute then charged fees per ton of coal that was transported out using his railways. Whilst some of the left, many settled and established in the South Wales Valleys between Swansea and Abergavenny as English-speaking communities with a unique identity. Industrial workers were housed in cottages and terraced houses close to the mines and foundries in which they worked. The large influx over the years caused overcrowding which led to outbreaks of Cholera, and on the social and cultural side and this number is now very low, following the UK miners strike, and the last traditional deep-shaft mine, Tower Colliery, closed in January 2008
6.
Cardiff
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Cardiff is the capital and largest city in Wales and the eleventh-largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is the chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media. The unitary authority areas mid-2011 population was estimated to be 346,100, the Cardiff metropolitan area makes up over a third of the total population of Wales, with a mid-2011 population estimate of about 1,100,000 people. Cardiff is a significant tourist centre and the most popular destination in Wales with 18.3 million visitors in 2010. In 2011, Cardiff was ranked sixth in the world in National Geographics alternative tourist destinations, the city of Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan. Cardiff is part of the Eurocities network of the largest European cities, the Cardiff Urban Area covers a slightly larger area outside the county boundary, and includes the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a port for the transport of coal following the arrival of industry in the region contributed to its rise as a major city. Cardiff was made a city in 1905, and proclaimed the capital of Wales in 1955, since the 1980s, Cardiff has seen significant development. A new waterfront area at Cardiff Bay contains the Senedd building, home to the Welsh Assembly, sporting venues in the city include the Millennium Stadium, SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff International Sports Stadium and Cardiff Arms Park. The city was awarded the title of European City of Sport twice, due to its role in hosting major sporting events, first in 2009. The Millennium Stadium hosted 11 football matches as part of the 2012 Summer Olympics, including the opening event. Caerdydd derives from the earlier Welsh form Caerdyf, the change from -dyf to -dydd shows the colloquial alteration of Welsh f and dd, and was perhaps also driven by folk etymology. This sound change had probably first occurred in the Middle Ages, Caerdyf has its origins in post-Roman Brythonic words meaning the fort of the Taff. The fort probably refers to that established by the Romans, the anglicised form Cardiff is derived from Caerdyf, with the Welsh f borrowed as ff /f/, as also happens in Taff and Llandaff. As English does not have the vowel the final vowel has been borrowed as /ɪ/, although some sources repeat this theory, it has been rejected on linguistic grounds by modern scholars such as Professor Gwynedd Pierce. A group of five Bronze Age tumuli is at the summit of The Garth, four Iron Age hill fort and enclosure sites have been identified within Cardiffs present-day county boundaries, including Caerau Hillfort, an enclosed area of 5.1 hectares. The fort was one of a series of military outposts associated with Isca Augusta that acted as border defences, the fort may have been abandoned in the early 2nd century as the area had been subdued. However, by this time a settlement, or vicus, was established
7.
Debenhams
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Debenhams plc is a British multinational retailer operating under a department store format in the United Kingdom and Ireland with franchise stores in other countries. The company was founded in the century as a single store in London and has now grown to 178 locations across the UK, Ireland. It sells a range of clothing, household items and furniture and has known since 1993 for its Designers at Debenhams brand range. Headquartered in Regents Place in the London Borough of Camden, Debenhams is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index, the company owns the Danish department store chain, Magasin du Nord, and has a subsidiary in Ireland. The business was formed in 1778 by William Clark, who began trading at 44 Wigmore Street in London as a drapers store, in 1813, William Debenham became a partner and the corporate name changed to Clark & Debenham. The shop was later renamed Cavendish House and carried drapery, silks, haberdashery, millinery, hosiery, lace, as the trade grew, the partners determined to expand the business by opening provincial branches in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, and Harrogate, Yorkshire, England. By 1823, Clark & Debenham had opened a drapery business at 3 Promenade Rooms, Cheltenham, selling a selection of silks, muslins, shawls, gloves, lace. By 1840, the management of the Cheltenham branch appears to have given to Clement Freebody. Around 1843, another branch shop was launched in Harrogate, extended and refurbished premises opened in Cheltenham in October 1844. Pooley and Smith retired from the business in 1851 when Debenham took his son, William, in 1876 when Freebody retired, a new partnership, Debenham & Hewitt, was formed. George Hewitt appears to have worked at the Cheltenham store as an assistant during the early 1860s. By 1883, George Hewitt was the owner of the Cheltenham business, Frank. The business was incorporated as Debenhams Limited in 1905, the modern Debenhams group grew from the acquisition of department stores in towns and cities throughout the UK, under the leadership of its chairman, Ernest Debenham. The first of these purchases, Marshall & Snelgrove at Oxford Street in London, was acquired through an on sided merger in 1919, later purchases included Harvey Nichols in Londons Knightsbridge in 1920. Most of the acquired stores retained their identities until a unified corporate image was rolled out. The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1928, in 1976 the company acquired Browns of Chester. It remains the only UK store to have retained an individual identity, the business diversified during the 1970s buying South East based supermarket group Cater Brothers in 1972, after the death of its chairman Leslie Cater. Using the new purchasing power Debenhams modernised its 40 food halls within its stores, branding them Caters Food Halls, however the business declined in the intense marketplace and in 1979 the chain was sold to Allied Suppliers who converted the Cater stores into their Presto format
8.
Newsagent's shop
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A newsagents shop or simply newsagents, newsagency or newsstand is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and often items of local interest. In Britain, Ireland and Australia, these businesses are termed newsagents, Newsagents typically operate in busy public places like city streets, railway stations and airports. Racks for newspapers and magazines can also be found in stores, bookstores. The physical establishment can be freestanding or part of a larger structure. In Canada and the United States, newsstands are often open stalls in locations such as streets. In suburban areas and villages they are housed in a shop selling stationery, tobacco. A newsagent is the manager, often the owner of a newsagent shop, Newsagents conduct either a retail business and/or a distribution business. When they first started in Australia is unknown, the earliest reference known in Australia is an advertisement in 1855 in Melbourne, today there are more than 5000 individually owned and operated newsagencies. Retail newsagencies primarily offer a range of newspapers and magazines as well as stationery. Distribution newsagencies offer home delivery of a range of newspapers and magazines, These can be quite large. If authorised, they are fully computerized. They often have a territory, which is protected by contracts with most of the Australian Newsagents Federation recognised publishers/distributors. These recognised publishers/distributors include ACP Publishing, News Limited, Fairfax Publications, Rural Press and these monopolies have been a major source of contention between newsagents and the Australian Consumer Affairs. In suburban areas and villages they are housed in a shop selling stationery, tobacco. In Japan, newsagents shops are called kiosks, and are found in or around railway or subway stations. In addition to newspapers and magazines, they sell beverages, snack foods, postage stamps, cigarettes, ekiben boxed lunches can be purchased at larger kiosks in inter-city rail stations. In the United Kingdom, newsagents shops are small shops selling newspapers as well as magazines, sweets and tobacco, some of them also sell provisions, opening times vary according to the owners preferences. These family owned shops may carry purchasing group branding such as SPAR, Todays, alternatively the private owner choosing to do his own purchasing may carry advertising for a local paper, national news group or soft drinks brand externally
9.
M4 motorway
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The M4 is a motorway which runs between London and South Wales in the United Kingdom. Major towns and cities along the route include Slough, Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff, a new Severn bridge, known as the Second Severn Crossing, was opened in 1996 with the M4 rerouted to use it. The M4 runs close to the A4 from London to Bristol, after crossing the River Severn it follows the A48 through South Wales, using the Brynglas Tunnels at Junction 25a, Newport and terminates just north of Pontarddulais. It is one of three motorways in Wales, the other two, the A48 and M48, branch off it. The area of land along the M4, with its towns, european route E30 includes most of the M4, although it is not signed as such. The Maidenhead bypass opened in 1961 whilst J1-J5 opened in 1965, the stretch from J18 to the west of Newport was opened in 1966, including the Severn Bridge. The Port Talbot by-pass, also built in the 1960s and now part of the M4, was originally the A48 motorway, the English section of the motorway was completed on 22 December 1971 when the 50-mile stretch between Junctions 9 and 15 was opened to traffic. The Welsh section was completed in 1993, when the Briton Ferry motorway bridge opened, the Second Severn Crossing opened in 1996, together with new link motorways on either side of the estuary to divert the M4 over the new crossing. The existing route over the Severn Bridge was redesignated the M48, in June 1999 the section of the third lane between Junctions 2 and 3 was converted to a bus lane, first as a pilot scheme and then permanently in 2001. A lower speed limit was introduced along the bus lane section at the same time, between 2007 and January 2010 the section from Castleton to Coryton was widened to six lanes. The scheme was opened on 25 January 2010 by Ieuan Wyn Jones the Deputy First Minister for Wales. During 2009 the Newport section of the motorway between Junctions 23a and 29 was upgraded with a new concrete central barrier. A similar claim was made for a 30-mile section of road in Scotland close to Aberdeen in September 2009 with refuelling points at Bridge of Don, Ellon and Peterhead. Between 2008 and 2010, Junction 11, near Reading, was remodelled with a new four-lane motorway junction. It also involved the movement of the local Highways Agency and Fire Service offices, and the construction of a footbridge network, a new bus-lane. Sound barriers for nearby areas were also installed. In April 2008, the decision to preserve a rare Vickers machine gun pillbox, the table below shows the timeline for the construction of the motorway on a section by section basis. Tolls are charged in one only, westbound
10.
European route E30
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European route E30 is an A-Class West-East European route, extending from the southern Irish port of Cork in the west to the Russian city of Omsk in the east. For much of its Russian stretch, it coincides with Trans-Siberian Highway and, east of the Ural Mountains, with AH6 of the Asian Highway Network and this route is approximately 6,500 kilometres. The E30 is one of the longest European routes with a length of about 5,800 km —3,300 km from Cork to Moscow. The naming is by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, formerly the route only went from Cork to Samara, with an often reported length of 4,912 km. Formerly, before 1985, this was the E8 and that ferry has 2 daily departures, one is a day crossing, the other a night crossing, both taking about 7–8 hours. It carries foot passengers and cyclists as well as cars, buses, caravans and freight lorries. The ferry has bunks, tickets for Dutch rail travel can be purchased on the ship. Ferries departing from Felixstowe carry freight only, the E30 follows the Russian main road M1 Belarus-Moscow, M5 Moscow-Chelyabinsk and M51 Chelyabinsk-Kurgan. It goes along minor roads past Ishim to avoid the Kazak border towards Omsk, throughout the United Kingdom, the Euroroute network is largely unsigned. This is because the Brexit vote provides no mandate for withdrawing from the UNECE, the Euroroute E30 will be subject to the same fate as other Euroroutes which run through the country, however, the UK is currently participating in the European Routes scheme. The E30 is an important coast-to-coast corridor in the UK, running for approximately 355 miles between Felixstowe in the East and Fishguard in the West, the E30 mainly uses primary routes and motorways across the UK. On mainland Europe, the E30 terminates at Hoek-van-Holland, where a link would be required to cross the North Sea into the UK. The E30 resumes in the UK in Felixstowe, Suffolk, the Port of Felixstowe serves as a major UK freight port, with limited passenger operations present. Between Felixstowe and London, the E30 takes the following route, handled 28.1 megatonnes of UK sea freight in 2014. Ipswich - County town of Suffolk, the Port of Ipswich handles approximately 2,000,000 tonnes of freight each year. According to the Association of British Ports, who operate the port, E30 leaves A14 and merges onto the A12 towards London. - The A12 joins the A120/ north of Colchester, the A120 acts as a spur to the Port of Harwich, with Stena Line providing cross-sea access to the rest of Europe for passenger traffic. Colchester - Britains oldest recorded town, Chelmsford - City in Essex, population estimated to be over 110,000. From Chelmsford, populous and industrial destinations like Southend-On-Sea and Basildon can be reached using the A130 road, ford Motor Companys UK headquarters are based in the locale
11.
National Express Coaches
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National Express is an intercity coach operator providing services throughout England, Scotland and Wales. It is a subsidiary of the National Express Group, most services are subcontracted to local coach companies. The companys head office is in offices above the Birmingham Coach Station, pursuant to the Transport Act 1968, the National Bus Company was formed as a holding company for the many state-owned local bus companies. Coach services were de-regulated under the Transport Act 1980 and buses by the Transport Act 1985, in March 1988 National Express was privatised in a management buyout. In July 1989 the company bought ATL Holdings with operations in Sheffield and a 50% share in Yelloway Trathen and these were operated under the Caledonian Express brand. In June 1991 National Express was sold to the Drawlane Group, in December 1992 National Express Group plc was floated on the London Stock Exchange. For most of its existence, National Express had little, if any, however, in 2003, Stagecoach introduced Megabus, a no-frills service whose £1 fares sparked a price war with National Express in autumn 2004. The competition intensified in 2007 when Megabus transferred its London terminus from the Green Line Coach Station into the main Victoria Coach Station, in November 2007 National Express announced plans to re-brand all its operations under a new unified National Express identity. As part of this the coach received a slightly different livery, retaining the red white and blue theme. Coaches started appearing in the new livery from December 2007, National Express offers many standard routes to destinations across the country. In addition, shuttle and airport services are operated, although there is no obvious difference to the passenger between a standard, shuttle or airport service with regard to branding. Many National Express coach routes pass through several town centres, which increases journey times for longer journeys considerably, a smaller number of Shuttle services operate at least once an hour over faster direct routes. National Express operates Airport services to a number of different airports, including East Midlands, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, the Airport brand was created in 2003 when the National Express image brand was updated merging the former Airlink, Flightlink, Jetlink and Speedlink brands. In the 2007 re-brand, the Airport branding was dropped, although the Airport coding is used on tickets. Nearly all National Express services are scheduled to use vehicles with a wheelchair lift and these vehicles feature a wider entrance and a completely flat floor throughout the coach to aid mobility for all. A very small number of coaches on the network do not yet contain wheelchair access. All these vehicles are expected to be withdrawn from service by mid-2013. Certain one-day a week journeys and duplicate services are not operated using vehicles featuring the Magic Floor Lift, newer vehicles include reclining leather seats, plug sockets, air conditioning and a large toilet
12.
Cardiff Bus
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Cardiff Bus is the dominant operator of bus services in Cardiff, Wales and the surrounding area, including Barry and Penarth. Its hub is Cardiff central bus station, the company is wholly owned by Cardiff Council and is one of the few municipal bus companies to remain in council ownership. While horse buses had run in the city since 1845, Cardiff Bus can trace its history back to May 1902 and it had been previously run by the Cardiff Tramway Company. The resultant Cardiff Corporation Tramways spent the three decades extending its electric tram network, and at its peak in 1927 ran 141 electric trams over 18 miles of line. On Christmas Eve 1920, the corporation introduced its first bus, the first Cardiff trolleybuses were introduced in 1942, their introduction having been delayed by the outbreak of World War II. The intention was to convert the tramway system to trolleybus operation. While the first stage was completed in 1950, the extension made to the system was to Ely which took place in 1955. Although powers had been obtained to considerably expand the network, a policy U-turn occurred in 1961 when the decision was made to all the trolleybuses with motor buses. This task was completed in 1970, bringing to an end 68 years of electric traction on the streets of Cardiff, the Transport Act of 1985 deregulated bus services outside London and required all Local Authorities to establish private arms length bus companies. In October 1986 the council established a subsidiary company, the Caerphilly local network of services including links between Cardiff, Caerphilly, Blackwood and Tredegar were discontinued in 2001 and are now provided by Stagecoach in South Wales. Some loss-making services have been withdrawn and are operated under local authority tender by other companies, including Watts Coaches, Cardiff Bus has a turnover of £27million, employs around 720 people, on an average weekday carries around 100,000 passengers. In 2009 the company started to operate the park and ride service from Cardiff City Stadium to the city centre, Cardiff Bus operates an exact fare policy and no change is given. This has since increased to £1.80 for a one-way journey or £3.60 for all-day travel in Cardiff and Penarth, or £1.70. A weekly ticket can be purchased for travel within Cardiff for £13, tickets can also be purchased on the mobile app, some of which are at a discounted rate. Special fares apply for travel between Cardiff and Barry, Newport, the Airport and Llantwit Major, Iff card is a contactless smart card introduced by Cardiff Bus in October 2010, allowing customers to travel on its services after having pre-paid. The first 30,000 cards were issued free of charge and preloaded with £3 of credit, an amount of money is electronically loaded onto the card, either upon boarding a bus or at the Cardiff Bus customer service centre. A passenger then chooses a ticket type, the card can also be used as a season ticket. The card should be topped-up when the balance is low, however the card allows the customer to acquire a negative balance up to £3, the card can be topped-up in units of £5, £10 or £20, up to maximum amount of £50
