PROPOSALS for a new bus hub in Mumbles will be developed further this year as part of plans for a better passenger experience along a key route to Swansea city centre and beyond.
Swansea Council has been examining the idea of an integrated transport hub at Dairy car park, near the Mumbles Road-Newton Road junction, allowing buses to turn round.
A final preferred option is being taken forward for consideration. Although it’s early days some people are anxious that parking spaces would be lost. The public will have a chance to have their say, along with landowners and other interested parties, before any final decisions.
Buses on looping routes get caught up in heavy traffic coming into Mumbles during peak holiday times and on sunny summer afternoons, and journeys back towards Swansea can be slow going too.
Susan Cole, of West Cross, who regularly uses the 3A service, said her first priority would be to increase the number of buses, but she welcomed the hub concept. “It would be a good idea,” she said.
Jan Davies, who was waiting in the rain opposite Dairy car park for a bus back to West Cross, said: “I’m for it, I think it’s worth it, but obviously you need to have parking in Mumbles.”
Leigh Vaughan, of L Vaughan Butchers, Newton Road, was less enthusiastic. “Terrible idea,” he said. “There’s no need for it. There’d be a coffee shop next. It would be a blot on the landscape. Smaller buses is what they need.” He added: “If anything it should be a tram stop.”
Guillaume Poudens, of skate shop West French, Newton Road, said losing parking spaces would not be a good idea. He hoped a multi-storey car park could be built at Quarry car park, off Mumbles Road. “At this moment in time it (a bus hub) would be a huge issue,” he said.
Sian Whelan, who was visiting from Clydach, said getting people out of cars had environmental benefits and that seaside towns and villages weren’t designed for traffic and car parks. She said she wasn’t sure about a bus hub, though. “It would be lovely if a tram came back,” she said. “I’ve come back from Edinburgh, and the tram system there was out of this world.”
The council-owned Dairy car park has around 40 spaces and two electric vehicle charging points. It costs £2.50 to park for an up to an hour, £5.50 for up to three hours and £6.40 for up to four hours – slightly less if you’re a resident. A market takes place there on the second Saturday of every month.
Swansea Council learned last week that it had secured £380,000 of Welsh Government funding to explore how bus service reliability could be improved and journey times reduced on the main arterial route from Ystradgynlais, Powys, along the A4067 to Swansea and Mumbles.
Part of this funding, said a council report, will pay for ongoing engagement with landowners, stakeholders and the public on the proposed design of the Dairy car park transport hub. The report said two hub options were assessed in 2023-24, followed by more detailed design work in 2024-25.
Cllr Andrew Stevens, cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said keeping bus passengers as well as motorists on the move in Swansea was a priority. “Key routes into and out of the city continue to be looked at in terms of development so that sustainable transport such as bus services are prioritised and can be made more reliable and frequent,” he said.
Separately, the Welsh Government has published a bill which, if passed in the Senedd, will begin putting buses under public control. The hope is that it would create a simpler system which better served passengers, and the intention is to roll it out in South West Wales first, starting in 2027.
Mumbles councillor Will Thomas said neither he nor his two ward colleagues, Cllrs Angela O’Connor and Francesca O’Brien, backed the Dairy car park proposal. “We can’t lose that car park for a bus stop,” he said.
