A REGULAR bus service will return to Shortwood from September.
The 525 service from Emersons Green to Pucklechurch and Yate, which was introduced earlier this year, is being diverted to run through the village.
It means residents of Main Road and Shortwood Hill in the village will have a scheduled bus service running past their doors for the first time in nearly a year.
An announcement on the Travelwest website, run by the West of England Combined Authority, states that from September 24 the route is being revised to serve Shortwood and Peg Hill in Yate, along with its timetable.
When the Voice contacted Stagecoach about the changes the company was unable to provide any further details, with a spokesperson saying the company was “very much still in discussions” with WECA and South Gloucestershire Council over the service.
However a spokesperson for Metro Mayor Dan Norris, who leads WECA, confirmed that route changes to serve Shortwood and Peg Hill had been registered with the authority for the revised service, with buses using Johnson Road and Pomphrey Hill between Emersons Green and Shortwood.
The spokesperson said there would also be a “timetable shift to provide a new school-time link to and from Yate’s Brimsham Green School”, as the 967 school bus service previously operated by Transpora between Westerleigh and Brimsham Green has been cancelled.
The last bus to serve Shortwood was First’s Y5 service, which ran from Bristol city centre via Staple Hill and Mangotsfield to Pucklechurch, Yate and Chipping Sodbury.
When it was axed last October its replacement, the 47, bypassed Shortwood, using the Avon Ring Road and B4465 between Emersons Green and Pucklechurch.
The 47 was itself cancelled after just six months, ending the direct bus connection between Pucklechurch and Bristol.
Stagecoach stepped in to run an hourly service, the 525, between Emersons Green and Yate, which again used the A4174 and B4465.
The current 525 service runs roughly every hour, from 6.50am to 7.05pm between Emersons Green and Yate, and between 5.55am and 7.10pm in the opposite direction.
Among other changes to bus services announced in August, the region’s biggest operator, First, says an extra m3 metrobus late evening service is being introduced, leaving the Centre at 10.35pm and arriving at Emersons Green at 11.07pm.
For more details of service changes visit the website travelwest.info.