NEW areas will be covered by an on-demand bus service helping people get around in North Somerset.

The WESTlink service, which sees commuters dictate routes by ordering journeys, is set to change from Monday (September 1), expanding the area it serves.

Operating between 7am and 7pm from Monday to Saturday, WESTlink aims to “better connect communities to the wider public transport network”, North Somerset Council said.

The changes, which will see areas around Clevedon and Portishead included, as well as a new Nailsea and Backwell zone to increase the availability of shorter town trips.

READ MORE: ‘It’s a s***hole’: Trigger Happy TV star reignites Weston row
READ MORE: Painting flags on roundabouts can ‘increase risk of accidents’
READ MORE: North Somerset news from your Leveller

Other changes include:

• connecting passengers making longer journeys to a hub location to transfer to a scheduled bus or rail network for onward travel. Where there is no scheduled service, WESTlink can be used from key hub stops to a neighbouring zone. This means Portishead residents will have onward travel access to Bristol airport from key hub locations.
• connecting passengers travelling from Rural Zones to towns to key hub locations. Passengers will still be able to travel to any location within their Rural Zone.
• extending WESTlink to cover Long Ashton to enable passengers from surrounding rural areas to connect with scheduled bus services.
• extending the Weston-super-Mare zone to enable passengers to access town centre Waterloo Street stops and Uphill.
• extending the Airport Shared Zone to include Barrow Gurney, meaning residents can now connect with other parts of North Somerset, and not just the Chew Valley area.

WESTlink was introduced in 2023 as a regional trial of on-demand transport, funded by the Government’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).

It has no set timetable, with routes instead guided by journeys booked by people wanting to travel.

A map of areas covered by the WESTlink service in North Somerset

The trial will run until March 2026, with further decisions taken at that point.

Cllr Hannah Young, the council’s cabinet member with responsibility for highways and sustainable travel, said: “The WESTlink trial has been a lifeline for many communities, but we’ve heard clearly that it hasn’t always been reliable or available when people need it.

“These changes are about making the service work better, so that more people can reliably access public transport to get to where they want and need to go, including children and young people travelling to school or college.

“They will also help us to assess the most cost effective way to use the government bus grant funds that we receive to serve the needs of as many of our communities as possible in the future.”

For more details on WESTlink – and how to use it – visit travelwest.info/westlink.