Passengers will notice changes to the WESTlink minibus service across the district this week.
Metro Mayor Dan Norris with a WESTlink driver | Photo © WECA
The green buses link up passengers making similar journeys to onward travel options and cover more remote areas in the West of England.
The current three large zones – North, South and FTZ (largely North Bristol) and two shared zones – are being replaced with nine smaller ‘core’ zones and 12 shared zones.
To address passenger concerns that there are not enough WESTlinks available to book, new ‘zones’ are being introduced to encourage shorter journeys and people will no longer be able to book a journey they could take by traditional bus or train.
The new zones have been developed by looking at where WESTlink trips have been made over the past year, overall regional travel patterns plus feedback from residents and community groups.
From today, Monday 8th April, the area WESTlink covers will expand to bring in new locations including:
- Bath’s Royal United Hospital and St Martin’s Hospital, as well as the University of Bath.
- Kingswood High Street, Hengrove Leisure Centre, Ashton Vale, the Hungerford Road area of Brislington and a small part of Withywood.
- Failand, Hewish, Nailsea and Backwell railway station in North Somerset.
A number of key destinations such as Cribbs Causeway, Southmead Hospital, Aztec West, UWE and Parkway Station will now be able to be reached by WESTlink for the first time from new locations including Yate and Thornbury.
Dan Norris, West of England Mayor, said: “On the first anniversary of WESTlink, we are making important changes to improve the region’s stop-to-stop bookable minibus service.
“WESTlinks have become a familiar sight on our roads. linking up passengers to main bus routes that run every 15 minutes into our two cities.
“We will continue to adapt and change so together we can make stop-to-stop travel in the West a success. If you’ve not tried it before, please give WESTlink a go.”
More than 100,000 trips have been made by people travelling on a WESTlink so far.
The aim is to help those who live in areas with little or no or limited public transport to connect with main bus routes, attracting new passengers onto buses, which is a key priority for the Mayor.
To book, passengers can download the WESTlink app from the App Store or GooglePlay, or call 0117 4578561. A single adult journey costs £2. Journeys can be booked the day before.
Find out more on the WESTlink website here.
