AROUND 30 years ago a tour group from London boarded a double-decker bus for the journey of a lifetime: across the River Usk on a gondola.
The group of 20 public transport workers were en route to Beaumaris in Anglesey to visit the Saunders Ltd site where the bodywork of their RT3933 bus was built in the 1950s.
Along the way, the tour stopped at the Newport Transporter Bridge and it was one of the first double-decker buses recorded to make the two-minute journey across the Usk.
The bus was driven by Roger Wright, a bus driver with London Transport, who now buys old buses and restores them for events and tours.
Some 20 years later, having also made journeys to Portugal, Spain and Poland, the group decided to get together and return to the Newport Transporter Bridge.
This time, they boarded a 1951 AEC region 3 model, which was in pristine condition.
Brian Bell, 58, from Cricklewood in north-west London, was one of the passengers on the bus on both trips and said that it was an experience like no other.
He said: “We all work in transport and we just thought it would be great fun to have a busman’s holiday around Wales.
“We realised it was 20 years and thought why don’t we do it again?
“When the gondola goes across the whole thing rocks and you feel the vibration. It’s a bit scary.”
Mr Bell, who works as a senior schedule compiler with the Metroline bus company in London, added that he was struck by the beauty of the bridge and hopes to return in 2025.
He said: “The people there were very friendly - they bent over backwards to help us.
“Because there weren’t other cars that wanted to use it they were able to put the bus on the gondola.
“We think it’s absolutely fantastic, it’s just brilliant that it’s kept going. We support it wholeheartedly”
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