Students have taken to Swansea’s new Unibus services like ducks to water but changing the habits of the second city’s permanent population takes longer, as RHODRI CLARK discovered on a recent visit
It is an almost surreal experience to be anywhere in Wales on a Tuesday afternoon and watch a double-decker fill up with passengers who are all young adults.
Full buses of any size are now something of a rarity in Wales, even during the morning and evening peaks in many areas. With free concessionary pass holders now accounting for at least 46% of all bus journeys in the principality, a bus in which none of the passengers has grey hair is almost unheard of.
I am observing a Unibus-branded First Cymru Volvo B9TL with Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 body at Swansea University’s Bay Campus, which opened in 2015 almost 4miles east of the city centre.
The university’s historic Singleton campus is about 3miles west of the city centre. The double-decker’s route will take it to the Quadrant bus station, the old campus and on to the halls of residence at Hendrefoilan, in the western suburbs.
Buses operate every 12min on this route in daytime, yet the Gemini departs with most seats occupied and several students standing.
Swansea’s ups and downs
