Three new bus services for Bristol
A new set of bus services are due to launch in Bristol serving communities in north, south and east Bristol.
In total £4.7 million* has been set aside by the council from the income raised by Clean Air Zone charges to fund the new bus services, including one through the new East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood area, until 2028.
These bus services, which First Bus will launch on 6 April 2025, will follow these routes:
- Service 16 – East Bristol: From Fishponds to Rupert Street in the city centre, via Kingswood, St George, Barton Hill and Temple Meads.
- Service 36 – South Bristol: From Highridge to St Annes, via Withywood, Hartcliffe, Imperial Park, Knowle and Brislington.
- Service 37 – South to north: From Knowle and Hartcliffe, to Avonmouth and Severnside, via Bishopsworth.
The first two of the new bus services will run roughly half hourly services every day between 6am and 7pm.
The third bus service, between Knowle and Avonmouth, will be a tailored service that will run three return journeys every day, with timings based around the shift patterns of workers in Avonmouth and Severnside business hub.
I am thrilled we are funding these important new bus services that will connect people to their places of work, families, friends, leisure, education and more.
Councillor Ed Plowden, Chair of the Transport and Connectivity Committee
It’s fantastic, that by working towards clean air for Bristol, we have been able to put money aside to invest in sustainable public transport that will be invaluable to the communities they will serve.
This follows on from the work of a task and finish group, which involved councillors from all political parties and was chaired by Councillor Tim Rippington, to consider how best to spend the Clean Air Zone income to support more bus services. We looked at gaps in Bristol’s bus network to identify services that would have the most benefit for people along these routes.
I am especially pleased that residents in east Bristol will benefit from a new half hourly bus service. This will complement our East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood trial, offering residents a fantastic new resource and hopefully reducing pressure in the area.
This is great news for our city, particularly for some of areas which have been poorly served by buses until now. Every Bristolian should have access to a reliable bus service. Whilst there’s a lot more work to do, I hope these routes serve as an important first step towards those ends.
Councillor Tim Rippington
There are, of course, a lot more areas that need new bus routes. £4.3 million* does not buy very much these days in terms of buses, but we are hopeful that this is just the beginning and we can identify more funding and plug even more gaps in the future.
The timescales for this project were extremely tight – had we not initiated the Task and Finish Group when we did it would have been at least another six months before we saw any new routes coming into action.
I’d like to thank council and Mayoral Combined Authority officers, in particular, for making this happen so quickly, and also my fellow councillors on the Task and Finish Group for their efforts in getting us over the line.
First Bus has registered the three new bus services with the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority, who is responsible for overseeing and improving bus services in Bristol and the wider region and will manage the contracts for these new routes.
*Bristol City Council is investing a total of £4.7 million in bus services. We expect to spend around £4.3 million on running these three new services over three years.
