Ftrmetro Swansea

ftrmetro Swansea is a bus rapid transit route in Swansea, Wales. The route was served by FTR articulated buses in an attempt to relieve traffic congestion and provide alternative transport to cars, before they were withdrawn in 2015 in favour of smaller-capacity buses.

The Welsh Assembly Government provided £2.2m in funding to help launch the scheme. and the local bus operator First Cymru paid for the fleet at a cost of £300,000 per vehicle. The buses, built by Northern Ireland-based Wrightbus, each have 37 seats. Stops are placed approximately every 500m and passengers pay for tickets on-board from a conductor rather than from the driver.

The bus runs along a route from Morriston Hospital to Singleton Hospital, via Morriston, Swansea railway station, Kingsway, Swansea bus station, Civic Centre and Swansea University. The off-peak journey time between Morriston Hospital and Swansea University is timetabled to take 50 minutes.

Alterations were made to a number of roads to provide a dedicated bus lane. Orchard Street and The Kingsway were converted to a one-way streets for cars with a separate two-way bus lane. West Way has been altered to accommodate a two-way bus lane and new access roads have been developed near the Civic Centre. Further road developments include a bus lane along parts of Oystermouth Road and a bus bypass road past the Hafod area.

Swansea

Swansea (/ˈswɒnzi/ SWON-zee; Welsh: Abertawe [abɛrˈtauɛ], "mouth of the Tawe"), officially known as the City and County of Swansea, is a coastal city and county in Wales. It is Wales's second largest city and the UK's twenty-fifth largest city. Swansea lies within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands. According to its local council, the City and County of Swansea had a population of 241,300 in 2014. The last official census stated that the city, metropolitan and urban areas combined concluded to be a total of 462,000 in 2011, making it the second most populous local authority area in Wales after Cardiff. During its 19th-century industrial heyday, Swansea was a key centre of the copper industry, earning the nickname 'Copperopolis'. Since 2011, Swansea has started to expand into a larger region known as the Swansea Bay City Region. After combining with other councils, it now includes Tenby and other parts of West Wales, its population including these areas an estimated 685,051. The chairman of the new region is Sir Terry Matthews

HM Prison Swansea

Coordinates: 51°36′54″N 3°56′56″W / 51.615°N 3.949°W / 51.615; -3.949

HM Prison Swansea is a Category B/C men's prison, located in the Sandfields area of Swansea, Wales. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service, and is colloquially known as 'Cox's farm', after a former governor.

History

Swansea is a Victorian prison built between 1845 and 1861 to replace former prison accommodation at Swansea Castle. Both male and female inmates were incarcerated there until 1922, at which point all females were transferred to Cardiff Prison.

Execution site

A total of 15 judicial executions took place at Swansea prison between 1858 and 1958. All of the condemned prisoners were hanged for the crime of murder. Their names, ages and dates of execution are:

District of Swansea

Coordinates: 51°37′48″N 3°56′46″W / 51.630°N 3.946°W / 51.630; -3.946

The Swansea district (Welsh: Abertawe) was one of the four local government districts of West Glamorgan, Wales from 1974 to 1996. It was formed from the areas of the county borough of Swansea and Gower Rural District, from the administrative county of Glamorgan.

It inherited the city status of the county borough and so was styled as the "City of Swansea", and was governed by Swansea City Council. On March 22, 1982 the city was granted letters patent raising the mayor to the dignity of Lord Mayor.

The district was abolished in 1996, when it was merged with most of the Lliw Valley district to form the larger City and County of Swansea. The last leader of the council was Cllr Trevor Gordon Burtonshaw.

References