Bristol to Chipping Sodbury Night Bus to stop running

First Bus have decided to stop running the weekend 47A Night Bus service from Bristol through Downend, Frampton Cotterell, Coalpit Heath, Yate and Chipping Sodbury after the end of April. This means that the services at 1.31 am and 3.31 am Saturday and Sunday will stop, and the last bus will be 11.35 pm from Bristol Bus Station.

These late night buses have in the past been supported by town and parish councils along the route, but now First have have doubled the amount of money they want as a council subsidy, and the passenger numbers have fallen - on average only 13 passengers are using each bus.

Other bus companies have been contacted, but they wanted even more money to run the service. It's just not economic any more - councils would have been paying First a subsidy of £6 for every passenger journey. Many young people now use the internet to arrange their own lift-sharing and prefer that to the bus.

This service has been running for more than ten years. We're sorry to see the end of it, but if you add up the subsidy and the £4 bus fares for 4 people, it comes to more than the cost of a taxi. At £6 subsidy per person First have simply priced the bus off the road.

In recent years this service has been supported by Yate Town Council, Dodington Parish Council, Downend and Bromley Heath Parish Council, Frampton Cotterell Parish Council, Mangotsfield Parish Council, Sodbury Town Council and Westerleigh Parish Council.

Changes to Yate and Chipping Sodbury Night Bus service

The Yate and Chipping Sodbury Night Bus service changes from next week, 24 April. Previously the N47 bus ran three times a night from Bristol City Centre (0015, 0155 and 0335) in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings.

The new 47A service will only run twice on each of those evenings (0131 and 0331) from Bristol City Centre, Broad Quay, but it will now call at Bristol Bus Station. It will no longer do the "North Yate Loop" as First Bus think this is uneconomic.

The town and parish councils have tried to persuade First Bus to run the third service, but they're just not interested, and no other company submitted anything like an affordable tender.

You can see full details of the timetable and a map of the new route here on the First Group website.