Get free WiFi on buses in Wales

The chaps at Moovera have been busy. Very busy. Fresh from kitting out services for both Stagecoach (Oxford to London) and National Express (Cambridge to London) with WiFi, they’ve just gone live with free WiFi on the First Cymru Shuttle100 bus service between Swansea and Cardiff.

Kudos to First Group, the owners of First Cymru, for introducing the facility at no charge to customers. The 42 mile Swansea/Cardiff route takes about an hour, on average so I am confident that quite a few passengers will leap at the chance to check their email or knock about on the internet during the journey. If I found myself having to travel this route, I’d certainly be more interested in taking a First Cymru bus, rather than other transport alternatives as a result of this new offering. Anyone contemplating having a meeting in either city would do well to take along their laptop for the ride.

Justin Davies, MD of First Cymru, has posted this on their news page:

We now have fitted WiFi equipment to coaches working on the Swansea to Cardiff ‘Shuttle100’ service. We have invested £10K in the new technology which means that you will be able to browse your favourite web sites and check emails free of charge whilst travelling on the coach. We are the first operator in Wales to adopt this technology across a dedicated route and fleet of coaches. The service runs between the two cities up to 16 times a day on weekdays, and hourly on Sundays, offering value for money fares. Shuttle100 also serves Bridgend Designer Outlet. Remember, you can buy your Shuttle ticket on local buses in Swansea, so that your journey to the Quadrant Bus Station is free.

I think it’s a smart decision by First Cymru. The case study (pdf link) on Moovera’s site about the Stagecoach implementation reports that during the first six months of operation, 8,500 unique users accessed the on-Bus WiFi over 40,000 times.

It’s ye olde Big Red — Vodafone — behind the First Cymru (and Stagecoach) services and T-Mobile behind the National Express service (pdf link).

I’ve never actually been to Wales — not once, which is, I think, a sad state of affairs. If time permits, I will get over to Cardiff and check out the First Cymru on-board WiFi service. Has anyone come across similar ‘on-bus’ (or train) services around the world? (I had a look on Greyhound.com but didn’t see any references to on-board WiFi)

Writing this, I was also reminded of BlackAdder‘s advice on Wales, perhaps rendered obsolete if you can use your laptop or mobile to look up google maps on-board:

“Never ask for directions in Wales, Baldrick. You’ll be washing spit off your face for a fortnight.”