NEW West of England Combined Authority Public Transport Guides

In April 2020, the West of England Combined Authority took over responsibility for managing bus service information from its constituent authorities: Bath & North East Somerset Council, Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council. Working alongside North Somerset Council, it now manages bus service information across the region.

Historically, the constituent authorities have provided individual printed travel maps and leaflets, but the Combined Authority wanted to replace these with a comprehensive series of branded travel guides covering the whole region.

The Combined Authority chose Pindar Creative to produce the new series. Three guides (central, north and south) cover the region.

The leaflet design incorporates the West of England Combined Authority branding. Each leaflet contains a detailed area specific bus network map, city and town centre maps, and listings showing route descriptions, bus frequencies and where to catch your bus. There is further information on Park & Ride services, concessionary travel, community transport, fares, ferry services, and a local rail network diagram.

We created a series of concept map designs to meet the required brief. The maps needed to be easy to understand and have an aesthetic appeal, encouraging the use of public transport.

The brief gave us several challenges to overcome. The first was to use a map scale that worked across the busy urban area and the less detailed country areas. We decided to use a simplified map style with insets for the city centres.

The second challenge was to produce a multi-colour style map with a colour-coded system that could accommodate a large number of services across the network.

We came up with a design where the metrobus routes use their branded colours. All other bus routes are colour coded by university services, city routes, routes travelling beyond the city areas and country and infrequent services. This map style provides a user-friendly map with enough detail to assist journey planning.

The leaflets are available in printed form with a static web version available on the Travelwest website. Plans include a digital interactive travel map with a similar design to compliment the folded paper maps.

We also produced an engaging poster to promote the travel guides. These are placed in the bus shelters.

We are delighted with our new Public Transport Guides which have proved to be very popular across the region. Working with Pindar Creative from concept design through to our current third edition has been a very smooth process. They have worked with our ideas, suggested new ones, delivered a quality product, and met our tight deadlines. They are experts in their field with creativity and attention to detail. Together, we have produced a valuable reference for residents and visitors.

Marie-Anne Buckingham
West of England Combined Authority