CHILDREN should have a safer journey to school from today as a Newport bus company begins to revolutionise its school transport system.

Newport Transport today unveiled the latest addition to its school bus fleet - a purpose-built coach with the latest safety features.

Parents have grown increasingly concerned about school buses in recent years and the call for improvements grew even more vociferous following a number of fatal accidents.

Before Easter two incidents in Newport highlighted the dangers. A 15-year-old St Joseph's School pupil was injured when he fell out of an upper deck window of a double decker bus.

Less than a week later it was discovered that vandals had tried to push out a window on the top deck of a bus which had taken Duffryn High School pupils to Pill.

Newport Transport's new £130,000 vehicle will take Duffryn High School and St Joseph's Roman Catholic School pupils to and from Pill.

The 70-seater, single-decker coach has CCTV, safety belts on every seat and a special safety belt cutter in case a passenger needs to be cut free following an accident.

It is also a high-bodied coach so passengers sit above the crash impact level should a collision occur.

Each pupil will have a nominated seat and the bus will have a dedicated driver.

The coach, designed and built by Scania and Irizar, will be followed by another six which have been ordered by Newport Transport and will arrive by the end of the year.

The company has worked closely with the two schools and Newport-based school transport campaign group BUSK to introduce the trial in the city.