New bus route will link Brynmawr with Cwmbran (From Free Press Series)

New bus route will link Brynmawr with Cwmbran

12:00pm Monday 30th January 2012 in News By Free Press reporter

A NEW bus route will be launched linking Blaenau Gwent to Torfaen, after a local operator pumped £40,000 into the venture.

Pontypool-based Phil Anslow Coaches will start running the service from Brynmawr to Cwmbran every hour in both directions from February 20.

Phil Anslow said: "Cwmbran is an up-and-coming place and it allows people from other parts of Gwent to travel there for work and shopping. There is no other service offering this route and it is just about being innovative, filling a gap and offering something that is not there."

Mr Anslow said people in Blaenau Gwent currently have to get a bus to Newport and then another to Cwmbran, so the new route will cut journey time massively.

Buses will run every hour between 8am and 5pm, stopping in Brynmawr, Blaina, Nantyglo, Abertillery, Six Bells, Aberbeeg, Llanhilleth, Swffryd, Pontypool and then Cwmbran.

Mr Anslow also said the move had helped save four jobs after four unprofitable routes, in Treowen, Wyllie and Risca to Newport had been discontinued. He currently has 19 vehicles which run nine commercial routes around Gwent and a number of school pick-up runs from the company's headquarters on Varteg Hill.

Exact fares for the routes have not yet been calculated, but they will be in line with those on existing routes in Gwent. For details on the new routes, call 01495 775599.