Weca Mayor hails "fantastic" news of new Bristol bus route
But it comes as the wider network grapples with a severe driver shortage
The Mayor of the West of England has hailed the news as "fantastic" that a new bus route is due to begin operating in Bristol.
First will start running the m4 Metrobus route between Cribbs Causeway and Bristol Parkway from 22 January, 2023,
Plans for the new route were first announced last May and £57 million has been spent creating it.
We've spoken Dan Norris to get his thoughts.
"It's absolutely fantastic that First have announced this new m4 bus service starting towards the end of January," he said.
"Obviously it's great to see progress being made on this new bus route, which will provide fast and direct buses between Cribbs Causeway and Bristol and it's particularly good for South Gloucestershire locals as well.
"It will link the Mall and Bristol Parkway and the University of the West of England with the city centre, which is important and is really an important milestone."
Eventually it will service a new community called Brabazon as well, which is currently being built on the old Filton Airfield.
Works for the service have included improvements at the San Andreas roundabout near The Mall, and will also include brand new roads through the Cribbs Patchway New Neighbourhood, being built by the developers.
The service will run between 6am and 11pm on weekdays, with a later start at weekends.
It will run every 20 minutes on Monday to Saturday, and every 30 minutes on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
However, the news comes as First continues to struggle with a significant shortage of drivers.
Last month the operator announced it was cancelling hundreds of weekly journeys around Bristol because of the issue.
But Mr Norris says he is as confident as he can be, that the m4 service will not be impacted.
"I'm confident based on what First have done with their other m(etrobus) routes, where they've said that they will make sure that they run efficiently and well, that this will also happen with the m4," he said.
"They've kept their word in that respect on the m3 route and I expect them to do that on the m4 route.
"But there may be challenges and if there are I will obviously move very quickly to make sure they are held to their word."
It has been reported that First are making progress when it comes to recruiting new drivers,
"The situation at the moment is that we are getting four new bus drivers a week," Mr Norris confirmed.
"Sadly we lose about three every week so we are gaining about one bus driver a week at the moment, but there are signs that that is improving and will get even better in the coming weeks and months.
"But there has certainly been a turn around."
We are due to speak to the managing director of First West of England Doug Claringbold about the current bus service, next week.