A FREE minibus will start shuttling shoppers around Swansea city centre next week.
The new Shopper Hopper minibus will link High Street rail station with the bus station just under a mile away off West Way, and run on Monday to Friday from 9am to 4.30pm.
Council leader Rob Stewart told a meeting of full council it would stop off at locations including outside Swansea Market’s Whitewalls entrance. “It’s a real challenge to get big service buses into that area,” he said.
The Swansea Labour leader said Shopper Hopper would begin on Monday, December 8, and he thanked transport staff for organising it at short notice.
The council’s website said each loop of the wheelchair-accessible minibus would take around 45 minutes and that the authority would review whether more vehicles were needed if demand was high. It confirmed the service would be free but said it was subject to change.
Cllr Stewart also told councillors at the December 4 meeting that free bus travel on certain weekends would continue in Swansea. Bus travel is free, with a couple of exceptions, on weekends in December for journeys starting before 7pm and also on six weekdays before and after Christmas.
Cllr Stewart added that Swansea was part of the region where a new system of bus franchising will be introduced first in Wales.
The Welsh Government wants a new system in which Transport for Wales (TfW), which it owns, oversees bus franchises. TfW, with input from councils and regional bodies called corporate joint committees, would set routes, timetables and fares and bus operators would bid to run them.
The hope is that services will better reflect passenger demand and that ticketing will be more integrated. The aim is for the new system to come into effect in South West Wales from summer, 2027, subject to legislation being passed in the Senedd.
