Bus transport in Cardiff, the capital and most populous city in Wales, forms the major part of the city's public transport network, which also includes an urban rail network, Waterbus and international airport. Cardiff is a major city of the United Kingdom and a centre of employment, retail, business, government, culture, media, sport and higher education.
Most of the city's comprehensive bus network is operated by Cardiff Bus, which is owned by Cardiff Council. The main hub and terminus of the network was Cardiff Central bus station, which closed for redevelopment of the site in the autumn of 2015. The new Cardiff Bus Interchange opened in June 2024.
Operators such as Stagecoach South Wales and Newport Bus link the city with other urban areas in South Wales. Adventure Travel operates services including the Fflecsi demand responsive service in north Cardiff. TrawsCymru operates a long-distance route to Aberystwyth, Cardiff Airport (currently suspended) and West Wales, while National Express and FlixBus operate long-distance coaches to towns and cities throughout Wales, Scotland and England.
History Trams
Horse-drawn omnibuses ran in the city from 1845 to 1909 and horse trams from 1872 to 1904. The first tram route ran from High Street in the city centre to the Cardiff Docks and was operated by the Cardiff Tramway Company. In 1898, Cardiff County Borough Council obtained legal powers in an act of Parliament to take over all the tramways in the area and to launch electric trams. The new routes formally opened in May 1902 with the first recorded accident later that month – a collision with a cyclist. More than 23 million passengers were carried in 1904, up from 18 million the previous year. When Cardiff became a city in 1905, 131 electric trams were operating on the network, mainly focusing on the busy Cardiff Docks. In 1928, the network peaked at 142 cars and routes covering 19.5 miles (31.3 km). By 1929, the tram network stretched from Victoria Park in the west, to Grangetown and Cardiff Docks in the south, to Roath and Splott in the east, and to Gabalfa in the north.
The council initially refused to allow motor buses to operate in the city, but reversed this decision in 1910 and operated its own from 1920. 81 tramcars were also introduced by Cardiff Corporation Transport to negotiate the city's low railway bridges. By 1939, these vehicles were becoming worn out and it was decided to phase out tramcars.
Trolleybuses and motor buses
In 1942, trolleybuses began to replace tramcars. The last tram service ran to Whitchurch in February 1950, making it the last place in Britain to commence trolleybus operation after Glasgow. Trolleybus routes were generally the same as tram routes although extensions were made. The furthest and final extension of the network came in 1955, to Ely, where trams had never run. At this point, the system peaked at 79 vehicles and 18 route miles.
In 1959, the Cardiff Corporation Transport (later City of Cardiff Transport) routes, with trolleybus routes in bold, were
1: Gabalfa – City Centre 2: Pengam – City Centre 3: Roath Park – Cathays – City Centre 4: Llandaff – City Centre – Penylan 5 (A/B): Victoria Park – Canton – City Centre – Llandaff 6: Cardiff Docks – City Centre – Llandaff 7 (A): Grangetown – City Centre – Tremorfa 8: Victoria Park – Lansdowne Road – City Centre – Roath 9: Cardiff Docks – City Centre – Gabalfa 10 A/B: Ely – Canton – City Centre 12 (A/B): Tremorfa (Pengam) – City Centre 16: Pierhead Building – City Centre 22A: Llanishen – Cyncoed – Penylan – City Centre 23: Whitchurch – City Centre 24: Penylan – Roath – City Centre – Whitchurch 27: St Georges – Caerau – Canton – City Centre 27B: Caerau – Canton – City Centre 27D: Culverhouse Cross – Caerau – Canton – City Centre 28 (A): Llanishen – Gabalfa – City Centre 28B: Rhiwbina – Birchgrove – City Centre 29: Thornhill – City Centre 30 (A): Newport – City Centre 32: St Fagans – Fairwater – City Centre 32 B/D: Pentrebane – Fairwater – City Centre 33: Morganstown – Radyr – City Centre 34: Llandaff North – City Centre 35: Penarth – City Centre 35A: Penarth – Cogan – Llandough – City Centre 36/41: Merthyr Tydfil/Tredegar – Caerphilly – City Centre 37: Canton – City Centre – Lisvane 38: Deri – City Centre 39 (A): Rhiwbina – City Centre – Ely Bridge 40 A/B: Heath – City Centre 43/44/47/48: Llanrumney – City Centre 45/46: Rumney – City Centre
Trolleybuses stopped on Wood Street, rather than at Cardiff Central bus station. A full transition to motor buses began in 1962 and was completed by 1970, bringing to an end 68 years of electric traction on the streets of Cardiff. The city has been served by motor buses ever since. Cardiff had the largest municipal bus fleet in South Wales with 253 buses. The fleet of 1960s and 70s maroon and cream double-deckers included AEC Regent V, Daimler Fleetline and Guy Arab V. The company also operated single deckers including AEC Swift.
Other operators Between the 1960s and 1980s, Cardiff had many small coach operators:
Western Welsh was formed in 1929 and grew to cover an area from St Davids in West Wales to the English border, operating 319 buses in its South Wales fleet by 1970. In 1978 it became National Welsh/Cymru Cenedlaethol which also ran Red & White. The two companies closed in 1992.
Neath & Cardiff's brown and red AEC Reliance fleet operated to towns to the west, to Bridgend, Neath and Swansea in the 1970s. Its coaches were known as brown bombers'.
In June 1970, Alan Barrington Smith operated the 59 service from Newport to Cardiff, previously operated by Davies and Baldwin and Red & White, using Bristol vehicles. This route was acquired by Smiths in 1972 and incorporated into their route 31 that circled Newport, but dropping the extension to Cardiff.
CK Coaches Ltd was formed in 1974. In 1981, it gained two routes in the capital, charging lower fares and offering the first competition for the Cardiff municipal fleet within the city since 1927. Leyland buses were bought from London Transport (Daimler Fleetlines) and Leicester City Transport for these routes; one of these was the 54 to Cyncoed, which had a white and orange livery similar to that of Cardiff Bus, but made more use of the white colour. Its blue and white double-deckers served the heavily populated eastern suburb of Llanrumney. CK Coaches later operated a route to Llanedeyrn, and used Wood Street in the city centre rather than the main stands of Central station. The company's licences were revoked on 31 March 1982, ceasing the services.
Falconer and Watts operated tours and excursions, private hire and some contracts from Llanishen, a suburb to the north of Cardiff from 1919 to 1982, when they were taken over by Warners Fairfax of Tewkesbury.
Thomas Motor Services, a Barry-based company, at one time operated the sole bus link between Barry and Cardiff via Dinas Powys. Its Leyland Tigers ran on the route 304 from 1959 until 1970, with Leyland Leopards taking over until 1982. Thomas continued to operate the route using coaches.
Greyhound's fleet consisted of around a dozen coaches in a blue and ivory livery. Some were used for local school contracts, such as at St Teilo's in the Penylan area of Cardiff. Coastal Continental Coach Hire, which ceased trading in 2008, operated Leyland Atlanteans in a red and cream colour on school routes for Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf in Llandaff North.
Bus stops
Over 300 city bus stops have passenger information panels that display the estimated arrival times of bus services. This information can also be found online.
School buses Many school buses are operated by companies such as Adventure Travel, Cardiff Bus and Edwards Coaches. These are operated by school coaches or low floor double-deckers.
Cardiff Central bus station
Cardiff Central bus station, on Wood Street, was formerly the hub of the city's and South Wales' bus and coach network. With 34 stands, it was the largest bus station in the city and in Wales. It was located adjacent to Cardiff Central railway station, forming a major bus-rail-cycle-taxi interchange.
Demolition began in 2008 with the terminus building being demolished. Before work began, there were 8 concourses lettered A–F and W (on Wood Street) with each concourse having numbered stands. Then, the stands were numbered B1–F2, JA–JD and JT–JQ.
The station handled the vast majority of bus and coach services that run in and through the city. Cardiff Bus accounted for 72 per cent of all bus services that stopped at the station by frequency.
Eating and drinking facilities, such as a Burger King and other shops and bus company offices, faced the concourses on Central Square. Taxi ranks were located on both sides of the station. Toilets and a newsagent were located at stand A, which was demolished in summer 2008 as part of the redevelopment of the station. Some services remained available in the adjacent Cardiff Central railway station.
On 1 August 2015, the remaining parts of the bus station were closed and demolished as a part of wider developments in the central Cardiff area. A remodelled Central Square and BBC Cymru Wales New Broadcasting House now occupy the site.
Several schemes for a replacement bus station were proposed and scrapped until a final scheme was agreed between the Welsh Government, financiers Legal & General and developers Rightacres in 2019. The new £89 million, 14-bay bus station is currently under construction by ISG Ltd, adjoining Central Square and facing the southern end of Westgate Street. It forms part of The Interchange, a curved eight-storey building which will include 318 for-rent apartments, two floors of office space and a retail unit on the ground floor. It was expected to be completed by the end of 2023, with several delays pushing the completion of the Cardiff Bus Interchange to the spring of 2024. Scheduled bus services at the new interchange began on 30 June 2024.
City centre
Most city bus services call at other significant bus stops in the centre. All city centre bus stops have a two letter code and most are found in clusters.
Interchanges and integration Cardiff's transport network also includes rail, taxi, cycle, water and air transport. Cardiff Central bus station was located next to Cardiff Central railway station, facilitating bus-rail interchanges. Many bus services stop at the 20 railway stations within the city.
The Cardiff Waterbus connects with bus services at Central Station and at Cardiff Bay.
The T9 TrawsCymru bus service connected the city centre to Cardiff Airport but was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and is yet to be reintroduced.
Local services and operators
Cardiff Bus
Cardiff Bus is the dominant bus operator in Cardiff and also serves Penarth, Sully and Barry. Its network consists of 73 routes, including 8 high school routes, using Scania OmniCity, Yutong E12, Scania N230UD, Fencer f1, Irizar i3, Alexander Dennis Enviro200, Enviro300 and Enviro400 MMC, Mercedes-Benz Citaros 0295 and 0530, and MCV Evora. Cardiff Bus carries 100,000 passengers daily, has a turnover of £27million and employs around 720 people. The fleet and drivers are managed against a timetable using software systems supplied by UK based software supplier Omnibus Systems, which allows the real-time digital information displays positioned at many stops around the city, to inform people when the next bus is due and alerting waiting passengers of any delays. Raised kerbs have been installed at the majority of stops.
In addition to scheduled city buses, Cardiff Bus is contracted to operate some school routes in the city.
A smart card for Cardiff Bus passengers was trialled in spring 2009 and launched as the Iff card in October 2010. In March 2018, Cardiff Bus introduced contactless payment across its services. On the 29th November 2025, the Iff card was removed from use.