page_title: Transport in Somerset
section_title: Buses
hierarchical_section_title: Transport in Somerset / Buses
caption_attribution_description: English: Regent Street in Weston-super-Mare is the meeting point for buses on all routes through the town centre. Crosville Motor Services' 400 (an ALX400 registered V125LGC) is on the way across town to Worle but has to squeeze past Webberbus BT63UUS, an MCV Evolution heading south to Bridgwater.
context_page_description: The earliest known infrastructure for transport in Somerset is a series of wooden trackways laid across the Somerset Levels, an area of low-lying marshy ground. To the west of this district lies the Bristol Channel, while the other boundaries of the county of Somerset are along chains of hills that were once exploited for their mineral deposits. These natural features have all influenced the evolution of the transport network. Roads and railways either followed the hills, or needed causeways to cross the Levels. Harbours were developed, rivers improved, and linked to sources of traffic by canals. Railways were constructed throughout the area, influenced by the needs of the city of Bristol, which lies just to the north of Somerset, and to link the ports of the far south-west with the rest of England.
  Today, the trunk road and rail routes to the south-western counties of Devon and Cornwall pass through Somerset. This gives the county good connections to Wales, London, and the north of England. A major port and an international airport are situated in the north of the county.
context_section_description: In 1905 the Great Western Railway started a steam bus service from Highbridge railway station to Burnham-on-Sea and Cheddar. The following year a number of services were tried that radiated from Bridgwater, but all had been withdrawn by the end of 1911.
  Meanwhile, Bristol Tramways started bus services from Bristol to towns and villages in north Somerset, first with a service in 1906 linking the tramway systems of Bristol and Bath. Bristol Tramways opened depots in Bath in 1909, Weston-super-Mare in 1910 and Wells in 1922, and by 1922 was running services between Bristol, Weston-super-Mare and Wells, and to Bridgwater, Street and Frome.
  Further south the National Omnibus & Transport Company opened depots at Bridgwater, South Petherton and Taunton in 1920, and Yeovil and Wincanton in 1921. National extended northwards to Weston-super-Mare in response to competition from Bristol Tramways. In west Somerset, a network of services was built up by Minehead and District Motor Services, acquired by National in 1927. The Great Western Railway's buses returned to the area with local services at Weston-super-Mare and Portishead in 1928 but by then the railway company was already in negotiation with bus companies about merging their operations. On 1 January 1929 National transferred its Somerset operations to two joint venture companies. The Yeovil area services went to Southern National, jointly owned by National and the Southern Railway, and the other services went to Western National, jointly owned by National and the Great Western Railway. On the same date the railway company bought a majority of the shares in the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company (although this was reduced to just 50% after 16 months) which took on the railway bus services in its area.
  In Bath motor bus services were started by Bath Electric Tramways Company in 1905, and from 1920 operated by a separate company, Bath Tramways Motors. Both companies were acquired by Bristol Tramways in 1936.
  From 1929 to 1983 most bus services in Somerset were run by Bristol Tramways (renamed Bristol Omnibus Company in 1957) in the north, by Western National in the south and west, and by Southern National (until 1969 when it was merged into Western National) in the south-east. All three companies were nationalised in 1948. In the south-east of the county three independent companies survived for many years. Hutchings and Cornelius of South Petherton operated from 1934 (Hutchings from 1926 and Cornelius from 1928) until 1979. Safeway, also based in South Petherton, operated from 1928 until 2008.  Further east, Wakes Services based at Sparkford ran a network of bus services between Yeovil and Shepton Mallet from the 1930s until 1999.
  In the 1980s both Bristol Omnibus Company and Western National were privatised. In preparation both companies were split. In 1983, the Somerset operations of Western National were transferred to a new subsidiary company, Southern National, and in 1986 Bristol's Somerset services were transferred to a subsidiary company called Badgerline. Both companies were sold to their managements. In 1995 Badgerline became part of First Bus, and in 1999 Southern National was acquired by First Bus. First combined and rebranded its Somerset operations in a single company, First Somerset & Avon. In 2014 the services in the south and west of the county were rebranded as The Buses of Somerset.
  First now has a monopoly in most of the county, although there are some independent operators. In the north Abus has operated routes from Bristol into Somerset since 1991, joined more recently by Wessex Connect and other operators. South West Coaches has developed a network of services in the Yeovil area, having acquired Wakes Services in 1999 and Safeway in 2008. Webberbus operated some services in south west Somerset and Weston-super-Mare until 2016 while between 2004 and 2017 Nippy Bus operated a small network around Yeovil.  Stagecoach South West has also started operations in Somerset. It won some council tenders and opened a depot in Yeovil in 2005, and in 2007 purchased C
caption: Crosville (left) and Webberbus services in Weston-super-Mare, 2015
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