We are aware that industrial action by First Bus Cymru* employees has already caused significant disruption for our student and staff community.
As you may have seen, further industrial action has been announced by First Bus, which is expected to take place from 20th November to 21st January (inclusive), with negotiations ongoing.
Attending Campus on strike days and engagement monitoring
We understand that this is frustrating and may make travelling to and from campus more challenging, however, it is important that you engage with your studies in person if you are able and make every effort to attend campus.
Students are expected to attend all scheduled sessions as normal (unless strike action prevents attendance). If you hold a Student Route visa this is particularly important, as it is a condition of your visa that the UKVI expects you to engage with your studies in person (unless you are prevented from doing so on days where strike action is taking place). Please ensure that you attend timetabled classes in person in order to meet this condition and enable us to provide evidential data regarding your attendance should it be requested from us.
Please see further information on engagement monitoring during this period.
For students with assessments taking place between 20th November and the start of December vacation, your Faculty will contact you directly about any individual arrangements. The University is also making plans to support travel for the January assessment period, should the strikes continue.
Bus services and alternative travel
During strike days, a number of skeleton services will be running, with limited timetables. Campus to campus services are highly likely to be affected.
Information may change at short notice, so it is important to regularly check the First Bus website for information, this page details how the strikes will affect services across South and West Wales. If you have a query relating specifically to travel arrangements on campus, you can visit our travel pages on the Hwb website.
Walking and Cycling
If you live within walking or cycling distance of campus and can, we strongly encourage you to consider these options during strike days. Free locks and lights can be picked up from Fulton House Reception, Singleton, or the HWB, Engineering Central, on Bay Campus.
Fabian Way Park & Ride and Shuttle Services
The Park & Ride Shuttle Service operated by South Wales Transport, linking Fabian Way Park & Ride and Bay Campus, will run as normal (every 15 minutes) and is unaffected by the strike action.
An additional Fabian Way Park & Ride service will be provided on strike days only. This is a temporary intervention to support students during the industrial action only and will run from Fabian Way Park and Ride into Singleton Campus. The frequency is to be determined – we will update with full details as soon as possible.
Alternative Services
Adventure travel services are unaffected by the industrial action.
- The T6 Service runs from Swansea (Quadrant) Bus Station (Stand F) to Bay Campus.
- The 116 and 14 services run from Swansea (Quadrant) Bus Station to Singleton Campus (Stands T and X respectively).
You can find more information on Adventure Travel Services here.
First Bus Ticket Refunds
First Bus has agreed to provide refunds (for strike days only) to those with monthly, term time or annual tickets.
Customers can raise a web form via the First Help and Support form:
- Select Refunds
- Request mTicket Refund Request
- Complete all required fields on the webform. (Please select the correct region.)
We will provide further updates as negotiations progress.