It’s been another busy summer for us here at Traveline Cymru. September saw us unveil our rebrand, with our website and mobile apps being given a refreshed look, along with the launch of our new, Freephone number 0800 464 0000 (read more about the launch of our rebrand here!)

September also meant a brand new year of Freshers Fairs, and it was the perfect opportunity to bring our rebranded services out to fresh-faced first year students as they embark on their new university lives. So our team hit the road once again, attending Freshers fairs up and down the country and helping students find all the transport info they’ll need to get around their new cities and towns.

We kicked off our Freshers journey at the University of South Wales campuses in Cardiff, Newport and Treforest, and continued the week by attending Cardiff University and Bangor University Freshers fairs. Our second week of events took us to Aberystwyth University, Swansea University and University of Wales Trinity St David’s campuses in Carmarthen, Lampeter and Swansea.

Lots of new students at Bangor University Freshers Fair
Image from Bangor University Twitter

Every event was buzzing with atmosphere, and were a great chance for us to speak to lots of new students and share with them travel tips and information they would find useful as they embark on their new courses.

Freshers Week is always a fantastic experience for us and over the years, we have grown to understand first-hand from students what information they truly find useful. We wanted to provide students with a resource that would enable them to use our services in way that was personalised for their university experience. So after putting our heads together and working in partnerships with universities across Wales, we launched myunijourney.

myunijourney is a brand new public transport service, developed exclusively for students. When you head to the myunijourney website here, students will be able to select their university from the drop down list to be taken to their own personalised university page! Here, you can plan journeys from main campus locations, find useful bus stops and discover local travel tips such as key bus routes and details on student ticketing.

Our Marketing Officer, Laura Thomas said:

“Attending the fresher fairs this year gave us a great opportunity to promote myunijourney to all the new students. In a new town or city, it can be really daunting trying to figure out public transport and with limited budgets, students want to find the best options for ticketing. The students were really positive about myunijourney and we hope that they find it useful when settling into their new lives.

September is always a busy month for Traveline Cymru meeting new students and this year we were really pleased to provide them with a useful tool, with specific information about public transport in their university towns and cities.”

Creating the myunijourney resource meant we had the opportunity to work closely with a number of universities across Wales, meaning we could combine our information together to provide students with a unique resource they can use all year round. In April 2016, we held our official launch of myunijourney at Swansea University Bay campus (read more about the launch event here!)

Swansea University were the first university we worked with in creating their personalised myunijourney microsite. We were able to demonstrate this at the launch as an example of how we envisioned this rolling out at other universities across the country.

Q&A with Jayne Cornelius!

Now that myunijourney is in full swing, and students across Wales are now able to use the resource, we caught up with Jayne Cornelius, Travel Plan Coordinator at Swansea University, on how they are getting on since their microsite went live.

Q. What drew you to the myunijourney scheme?

Jayne: Swansea University have a long established relationship with Traveline Cymru.  When the opportunity arose to have a webpage especially devoted to Swansea University Student and staff travel we were happy to be involved. This is a great way to get students looking up all of their available sustainable travel choices.

Q. What elements of the myunijourney website do you feel Swansea University students will benefit from the most?

Jayne: The journey planners and the fact that it is a one stop shop for travel information.

Q. Have you had any positive feedback from students so far?

Jayne: Yes most students prefer online travel information or links to travel information so this is perfect for them.

Jayne Cornelius at the launch of my myunijourney at Swansea University Bay campus in April 2016

Competition time!

To celebrate the myunijourney alongside Freshers Week, we launched our exciting photo competition, giving new students the chance to win a one year 16-25 travel card, courtesy of National Rail!

The competition closes on Friday 28^th October 2016, so there is still time get involved!

To enter, simply post a photo of your journey at university onto Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #mynewunijourney. You can enter as many photos as you like, whether that be a scenic view from out the bus window, or a snap of you and your new walking buddy!

Click here to see the full competition details and terms and conditions. Good luck!

With Freshers Week over for another year, we’re looking forward to seeing students having the chance to engage with the myunijourney services as they get settled into a brand new term. No matter where you need to go during your time at university, we’re here to help you along your way and make your uni journey one to remember! Don’t forget to share your uni experiences with on Twitter @TravelineCymru and Facebook using #myunijourney!