30@80
1 week ago
On 1 July 2025, route 30 between Cardiff and Newport will celebrate 80 years of joint municipal bus operation. It is the longest period of a jointly operated municipal bus service in the world.
To celebrate, on Sunday 6 July 2025, there will be a road-run between Cardiff and Newport showcasing 6 vehicles that have been used on route 30 over the years. These include Newport’s preserved Leyland PD2 as well as the latest buses from both Newport and Cardiff. We’ll be joined on the day by Cardiff Transport Preservation Group too.
All six buses will leave Sloper Road depot at 10:10 and travel through Cardiff Bus Interchange arriving at Greyfriars Road at 10:30 for photos. We’ll leave there at 10:50 and you are welcome to board Newport Bus’s Yutong Electric double decker for a free ride to Newport and back. We’ll be stopping for photos at Castleton and Newport.
For more details on the road-run please contact [email protected]
The story of route 30…
On 1 July 2025, route 30 between Cardiff and Newport will celebrate 80 years of joint municipal bus operation. It is the longest period of a jointly operated municipal bus service in the world.
Joint-operation in itself is not unique to Newport and Cardiff. Indeed, the South Wales valleys were particularly prone to joint-operation – the Blackwood to Pontypridd service was once operated by four municipal operators!
However, they remained a small part of the overall operations of each company. Many changed hands and others didn’t last long. Apart from route 30, Cardiff Corporation (now Cardiff Bus) operated another two services jointly – one to Merthyr Tydfil in conjunction with Merthyr Tydfil Corporation. The other to Tredegar, alongside Islwyn Borough Transport. The Merthyr Tydfil service was left in the sole hands of Merthyr Tydfil Corporation in 1970 although route 36 (then numbered 26) continued until 2001.
The service between Newport, Llanfrechfa and Cwmbran had been jointly operated by Newport Corporation (now Newport Bus) alongside Western Welsh then National Welsh, although Newport always had the larger share of the journeys. Newport Transport became the sole operator of the service from October 1981.
Route 30, therefore, is something of an exception. Operating largely unchanged for 80 years.
The first bus service between Newport and Cardiff started in 1913. Provided by RW Robins of Cardiff, the service ran from Commercial Road/Cardiff Road in Newport to the Royal Oak/Broadway in Cardiff – the tram terminus, where passengers would need to transfer to continue to the city centre. This continued until 1919. In January 1920, the route was taken over by G Vernon Jones of Castleton.
On 15 April 1924, Cardiff Corporation acquired the route from Jones along with 4 vehicles. In August of that year the Cardiff terminus moved to The Monument (Lower St Mary Street). The service gained its route number 30 in 1929.
On 1 July 1945, it was agreed that Newport Corporation operate the service jointly with Cardiff Corporation. The route was revised to start at Greyfriars Road in Cardiff and at Bridge Street in Newport. The service operated every 20 minutes and carried 35,000 passengers a week! The fare was 1/3d single and 2/- return.
Image: Newport Corporation Faretable from 1947 (A Clarke)
Cardiff’s buses were painted cream and maroon (officially called Crimson Lake). Newport’s in green and cream.
In 1956, the Cardiff terminus moved to the newly created Central Bus Station with the Newport terminus moving to Dock Street bus station or “pull-in” as Newportonians would call it.
Image: Newport Corporation Transport Davies Bodied Daimler CVG6. Fleet Number 150 (NDW 601). Seen at Cardiff Central Bus Sation sometime in the 1950s (RHG Simpson from the Cardiff Transport Preservation Group Collection)
I
Image: City of Cardiff Transport AEC Regent V. Fleet Number 414 (414 DBO). Seen at Newport’s Dock Street bus station in June 1970. One of the last years of the marron and cream livery (C Essex)
There were a few journeys operated by Cardiff Corporation numbered 30A that operated between Greyfriars Road and Castleton with some journeys extending to Marshfield. These were abandoned in the late 1960s.
Image: Cardiff Corporation Timetable from 1964 showing extra journeys numbered 30A (A Clarke)
Likewise, the route between Newport, Castleton and Marshfield (operated by Newport Corporation) was initially numbered 30 but subsequently renumbered 31 to avoid confusion.
Despite these small additional services, the 30 remained largely unchanged. The only minor amendments were in both city centres where regeneration, pedestrianisation and one-way systems have resulted in a number of revised routes and stops as they operated to and from their termini.
Image: Newport Corporation Transport Leyland Atlantean. Fleet Number 16 (TDW 316J). Seen at Cardiff Central Bus Station in May 1973 contrasting with buses from Cardiff Corporation. (J Jones)
In 1972 Cardiff Bus revised its livery to the iconic orange and white.
Image: City of Cardiff Alexander-bodied Bristol VRT. Fleet Number 326 (WTG 326T). Seen at Newport’s Old Green roundabout in its iconic orange livery in October 1978 (J Jones)
Image: Newport Transport Duple-bodied Leyland Leopard. Fleet Number 65 (DTG 365V). Seen at Cardiff Central Bus Station in September 1980 (J Wiltshire)
On 26 October 1986, bus services were deregulated following the 1985 Transport Act which resulted in publicly owned bus companies being privatised. Some were sold, merged or disappeared entirely. Newport and Cardiff’s operations were set up as limited companies which operated independently of the council although the local authorities still continue to act as the shareholder. The companies were renamed Newport Transport and Cardiff Bus respectively.
Image: Newport Transport Timetable from 1985. The last timetable for deregulation. (A Clarke)
The deregulated market saw huge changes across the UK. Companies that had previously co-existed with some jointly operated services now saw each other as competitors, often registering new services on-top of existing networks. Despite route 30 being a strategic link, both Newport and Cardiff continued to operate unchanged with both operators not initially expanding far from their original operating areas. Indeed, over the years only one route from each operator has strayed into each other’s local authority area. Cardiff Bus had always operated between Cardiff and the small village of Michaleston-y-Fedw (in Newport Borough) whilst Newport Transport had extended its Marshfield service to Rumney (in Cardiff Borough) on-and-off through the years. Although the Act no longer allowed them to collaborate directly with each other, the joint arrangement for route 30 continued.
In the early 1990s, competition in South Wales increased and resulted in the loss of a number of local authority owned bus companies. By the mid-90s only Cardiff, Islwyn and Newport remained, however the three operators continued, adapting their networks to meet demand.
There was the potential for municipal operation to come to an end in 1996 through local government reorganisation. The controlling shareholders were changed to county boroughs with new responsibilities over a wider geographical area. These new authorities may have seen it as an opportunity or necessity to dispose of their bus companies, but neither did and the joint operation of route 30 continued once more.
Almost exclusively operated by double-deck vehicles since its introduction, the 1990s saw some journeys operated by single deckers. This was not merely a reaction to passenger numbers but often because the single deckers were the newest in the fleet. Some of the later Sunday evening journeys were operated by each company’s Optare Metroriders with the appropriate Nipper or Clipper branding.
Newport Transport Alexander-bodied Dennis Trident. Fleet Number 40 (V140 HTG). Seen leaving Greyfriars Road (Cardiff) in its striking livery in March 2000 (E Marsh)
In the year 2000, the first significant route change was introduced. One bus per hour operated through Duffryn Estate in Newport. Numbered 30D, both operators provided the diversion although Cardiff Bus reverted their journeys to the normal route 30 in June 2003. Newport continued providing the 30D every two hours until it too reverted all journeys to the normal route 30 in 2008.
Image: Cardiff Bus Plaxton Verde-bodied Scania N113. Fleet Number 284 (J28 UWO). Seen entering Newport Bus Station in 2016. (A Wiltshire)
In November 2007, Newport Bus added an express version, numbered X30, which operated fast via the M4 and subsequently via the University Hospital of Wales. Route 30 continued, however it faced worsening congestion and increased journey times.
Image: Cardiff Bus Transbus Envrio 300. Fleet Number 712 (CN04 NRK). Seen in Kingsway (Cardiff) in September 2004 sporting the Burgess Blue livery. (A Wiltshire)
In 2020, the 75th anniversary passed unmarked as the country was only just coming out of the Covid-19 restrictions. Throughout the pandemic, the timetable was significantly reduced however it remained jointly operated.
Changes to working patterns, the unstoppable popularity of the internet and increased traffic congestion has meant that post-Covid, route 30 faced some new challenges. However, live-tracking, mobile ticketing, apps and electric vehicles have gained route 30 new customers. Tickets, even those bought on the app, are interchangeable between each operator.
Image: Newport Bus Electric Yutong U11DD. Fleet number 419 (CK24 AUO). Seen in Westgate Steet (Cardiff) in March 2025 (A Mantle)
In September 2024, the Cardiff terminus move to the newly opened Cardiff Bus Interchange. This was followed by significant changes to the timetable in January 2025 to restore reliability to the service. Some peak journeys now take 1 hour 15 minutes – a far cry from the 40 minutes allocated just 20 years previously. For the first time since its inception, new early morning journeys were added with the first buses departing at 05:25 from Cardiff and 05:50 from Newport. Those changes demonstrate each operator’s commitment to keeping route 30 a strategic link between the two cities.
Image: Cardiff Bus Scania K280CB Higer Fencer. Fleet number 702 (CB73 AZZ). Seen exiting Cardiff Bus Interchange in June 2025 (A Mantle)
The future of transport is always unpredictable. With plans for bus franchising moving through the Senedd, there may be an end or a renaissance to municipal operation.
For the time being, both companies continue to invest in the route and the 30 continues to be something of a showcase for each operators’ newest vehicles. The difference in liveries makes each operators buses stand out in their neighbouring cities. But for 80 years, those in orange and those in green have happily worked together. Long may it continue.