Bus operator First West of England has this week announced a “significant increase” in the number of buses operating in the region from Sunday 2nd April – including an improvement to a key Burnham-On-Sea service.
First West of England says it will also be extending its use of new, state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) scheduling software to improve punctuality across an extensive range of services.
Among the local services set to be improved is Service 20 between Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-On-Sea.
“Our new timetable on this route will be introduced with more frequent services,” says a spokesman.
The route of the Service 20 bus between Burnham-On-Sea and Weston is shown below.
It comes as Burnham and Highbridge town councillors have recently expressed dismay at the lack of frequent bus services serving the two towns.
The Town Council is seeking to encourage bus use as part of its environmental policy to reduce local car journeys where possible.
Across the region, First West of England has pledged the service changes will add over 3,000 hours of bus journeys to routes every week.
“The operator’s buses will travel over a million and a half extra miles every year to give people more opportunities to travel sustainably,” adds the spokesman.
“As part of this, First West of England will be reinstating over 1,600 hours of buses in Bristol every week, following the temporary suspension of some journeys in November due to driver shortages.”
“The increased frequencies and punctuality improvements represent a significant investment from First West of England in service improvements.“
“Despite the improvements to many services, passenger numbers are still down by around 20% on pre-pandemic levels and although many services are showing good growth, a very small number have shown no signs of attracting sufficient users to cover their costs.“
Doug Claringbold, Managing Director of First West of England, adds: “These new timetables will significantly increase the service we offer our customers and I’m confident that our investment in new technology will also continue to improve punctuality.”
“We will also be reinstating journeys in Bristol that we had to temporarily suspend last year, as we are starting to see the effect of our major driver recruitment and retention campaign.”
“We’re delighted that the West of England Combined Authority and North Somerset Council successful BSIP award means significant investment in a number of important routes, which together with our own investment in our commercial network will bring improvements for many customers.”
“We would like to thank our customers for their patience and for continuing to be considerate to our drivers during what has been a difficult period.”
New timetables will be available in mid-March.
