The Gibraltar Bus Company is introducing a night bus pilot scheme. As from tomorrow, in order to cater for people visiting the fair, two new bus routes will be in operation.

The night bus service will start as from 21:00 with the last buses leaving Ocean Village at around 01:00. After the fair, the service will run on Friday and Saturday nights.

ROUTES

The first route will be called “N8A” - a name inspired by the text-speak term for “night.” The N8A bus will depart from the Eastside, pass Ocean Village, St Bernard’s Hospital, Mid Harbours and continue along Queensway all the way to Rosia Parade. The second route – to be known as “N8B” – will start at Ocean Village and continue through the South District to Europa Point. There will be one bus per hour for each route.

Although not all areas of Gibraltar are covered, the Minister for Public Transport Paul Balban said that there was the option to expand the routes available in the future depending on the success of the pilot.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “it cannot at this stage be a bespoke service to every corner of Gibraltar.”

£2 A TRIP

Although bus travel during the day is free for locals, a trip on a night bus will cost £2 per passenger over the age of eight. Speaking this afternoon to the press, Minister Balban said that this was necessary to cover the increased costs to the Bus Company associated with overtime to provide this service.

Mr Balban said the initiative was part of a wider effort to encourage people to leave their cars at home and use public transport.

“The public has shown a keen interest in this scheme,” he said.

SAFETY

Although there are said to be no serious concerns about safety on the new night buses, the two buses which will be used have been fitted with a Perspex “assault screen” to protect the driver. All buses are also fitted with CCTV as standard. 

NEW REQUEST STOP

In other news, today sees the opening of a new request stop for the No1 Upper Town bus route at the bottom of Flat Bastion Road. Previously, bus users in this area had to either walk up Castle Road to use the Police Barracks stop or make their way to the Astoria Club stop at the top of Flat Bastion Road.