Crosville Motor Services (Weston-super-Mare)

The original Crosville Motor Services was a major bus operator running services in Mid and North Wales and North West England. The name fell out of use after that company was privatised but was resurrected by this new operator. Some of the heritage fleet were once used by the original Crosville.

Although contract and private hire work had been undertaken from 2011, Crosville's first four commercial bus routes commenced operation in April 2012. These included routes from Weston-super-Mare to Sand Bay and Burnham-on-Sea, also a sea front tour to Uphill which was operated by heritage buses on summer Sundays and public holidays.^[1]

In April 2013, Crosville commenced operating a further two routes, 4 and 83.^[2]

In 2016, Crosville's proprietor commenced operating services during the construction of EDF Energy's Hinkley Point C nuclear power station through a 50% shareholding in Somerset Passenger Solutions.^[3][4][5] Although operated independently, there was some sharing of resources with Crosville.^[6]

In April 2016, Crosville commenced operating services in Bristol and South Gloucestershire under contract to North Somerset Council.^[7][8]

In July 2017, six routes were withdrawn and an enforced reduction in fleet size by the Traffic Commissioner following a public enquiry after some vehicles were found to be operating in unsafe condition. After this, the managing director, Jon-Jones Pratt, announced that Crosville would cease operation in Weston Super Mare in early 2018.^[9][10] In February 2018, the company announced that it would cease all local bus services and school operations at the conclusion of services on 21 April 2018.^[11][12] Following a further public enquiry by the Traffic Commissioner, Crosville's operating licence was revoked from 25 April 2018.^[13] All services on the final day were operated by vehicles from the heritage fleet.^[14]

After operations ceased, First West of England introduced a replacement service to Sand Bay,^[15] while Bristol independent Carmel Coaches took over route 106 on a temporary basis.^[14][16][17]