Newport Bus

In 1901, the Newport Corporation took over the town's horse-drawn bus service, establishing a municipal bus operation.[4]

Motorbus services began in April 1924,[5] although the corporation was prohibited from running services beyond Rogerstone and Langstone without the assent of local councils by the Newport Corporation Act 1925.[4][6] This prohibition was removed in 1981, allowing then-Newport Borough Council to operate more extensive services.[4][7]

By 1985, the Borough Transport Department held responsibility for the town's bus services.[8][9] Following passage of the Transport Act 1985, which deregulated the UK bus network and required local councils to transfer the functions of their bus operations to commercial entities, a stand-alone company limited by shares was incorporated on 10 March 1986.[2] Initially named Newport Buses Ltd, the company was renamed Newport Transport Ltd on 9 October 1986,[2] before formally taking over operation of bus services in Newport from the Borough Transport Department on 26 October 1986.[8]

In the 1980s, Newport Transport was the largest operator of Scanias in the United Kingdom.[10] It also operated Renault 50 midibuses.[11]

The bus operation was rebranded from Newport Transport to Newport Bus in 2011.

After receiving a £1m grant from the Office of Low Emission Vehicles in February 2019,[12] the company placed an order for 15 fully-electric, zero-emission E12 buses from Yutong. The first demonstrator vehicle, funded by the grant, began operating in August 2019,[13] with the remaining vehicles expected to enter service in 2020.[14][15]

On 1 March 2020, the company introduced the Ticketer contactless payment system on all its routes, a system used by Cardiff Bus since 2018, enabling payment by card and NFC-enabled devices, as well as recognition of QR codes from paper day/week tickets.[16][17] The company also aims to provide ticket sales and journey tracking though a mobile app in the first half of 2020, to be followed by real-time bus information.[17]

Newport Bus operates a network of services from Newport bus station throughout the city; services extended as far as Chepstow in the east, Monmouth in the north, and Cardiff in the west.[18] The service to Cardiff is operated in partnership with Cardiff Bus.[19]

As of 2020, discussions are ongoing with Transport for Wales for the network to form part of the South Wales Metro rail and bus project.[20]

The company also offers various commercial transport services.

The original pre-war livery of maroon was changed to green and cream in the 1940s[21] and remained the same until August 2009, when it was replaced with a livery of dark green and white with lime green and grey logos at the rear. From 2018, a new livery of all-over green was introduced.

• 
  Metro-Scania at Newport bus station in 1976
• 
  Scania OmniCity at Cardiff Central bus station in May 2014
• 
  Alexander Dennis Enviro400 in Cardiff in April 2015

Media related to Newport Transport at Wikimedia Commons

• Newport Bus website
• Showbus gallery