South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 26/01/2015

Commuters in South Gloucestershire can enjoy two weeks of free travel on the X18 bus service from today (Monday 26 January).

This special offer runs from Monday 26 January to Friday 6 February and aims to encourage more people to use the bus to travel to and from their place of work. Passenger numbers for the X18 have risen by 39 per cent over the last 12 months, and we are providing two week’s free travel to encourage even more people to give the service a try.

The X18 service was established to serve many of the area’s largest employers and runs between Kingswood and Aztec West. Travelling via the A4174 ring road, the X18 stops at Emersons Green Science Park, UWE’s Frenchay Campus, the MOD Abbey Wood site, Filton Abbey Wood Railway Station and a number of businesses located on the A38 between Filton and Aztec West.

Chair of the council’s Planning, Transportation and Strategic Environment Committee Cllr Brian Allinson said: “Getting people out of their cars and onto local buses is one of our key objectives so the council has teamed up with First to help promote this valuable commuter service. We’ve made it incredibly easy for people to enjoy the offer: you simply need to turn up, get on board and off you go. No special vouchers are required and people can travel as often as they like during the two week period.

“This service in particular has a lot to offer – the buses have free WiFi and journey times are short as the buses make use of their dedicated lanes around the ring road.”

James Freeman, Managing Director of First West of England, said: “Service X18 is a great commuter service linking Kingswood  and Aztec West and running via some key destinations such as Emersons Green, the Science Park, UWE and the MOD site in Abbey Wood.

“We hope that by giving people the opportunity to try this bus, hoping on and off as many times as they like – for free – within this two week period, that they can be encouraged to use it on a more permanent basis.  The bus uses the ring road, so for many people it goes the way that they would drive to work, but has the benefit of being able to use the two-plus lanes to bypass much of the traffic.

“Bus services have changed substantially in recent years. Many of our buses have leather seats, free WiFi, and with developments such as smartcards and m-ticketing, it’s now even easier to buy and store a ticket in a really convenient way, reducing the need to think about finding the right change before you get on board.”

Service X18 is supported by South Gloucestershire Council through the Local Sustainable Transport Fund.

For timetable information and an online route map for the X18 service visit www.firstbus.co.uk/bristol-bath-and-west

For more information about local bus services and travel across the West of England region visit www.travelwest.info