This week has been all about Catch the Bus Week. The national campaign, launched by Greener Journeys, the sustainable transport group, aims to drive awareness about the benefits of travelling by bus, and particularly to encourage those who don’t normally take the bus to go out and give it a try.

Travelling by bus offers a huge range of benefits to commuters, along with helping you to reduce your carbon footprint. The Catch the Bus Week campaign is out to engage with the public and entice them to shake up their travel routines and try out a more sustainable mode of transport.

As the week has progressed, there have been a number of events and promotions taking place all across the country, with hundreds of bus operators, local authorities and passenger groups getting involved and joining the conversion on social media using #CatchTheBusWeek.

Many have been encouraging people to send in photos from their bus journeys, whilst others have been helping support the campaign in their area, from Cardiff Bus to the Brecon Beacons. As part of Catch the Bus Week, Cardiff Bus have been running their ‘Give it a try’ campaign, challenging drivers to swap the car and take the bus to work for the week instead.

The campaign has been a great chance for people to get talking to those involved, informing the public of the services that are available and where they can find information. Local councils for example, such as the Vale of Glamorgan, have made online timetables of local services available to view on one handy webpage.

Greener Journeys have also been encouraging people to tweet photos of themselves catching the bus throughout the week to be in with the chance of winning one of two annual passes to the London Transport Museum using the hashtag #CTBW.

With so many events and promotions taking place all across the country, from discounted ticket prices to free tickets, Catch the Bus Week has proved to be an excellent opportunity for travellers to try out the bus services and see if it works for them.

However, as with many things, it seems the key to a successful change is the ‘little and often’ approach. Greener Journeys posted a blog this week exploring this idea, which you can read more of here! Why not start by swapping one journey a week to the bus? It’s all about being able to juggle our busy schedules to fit in more sustainable modes of transport that not only benefit the environment, but ourselves and our health as well.

So Why Travel by Bus?

- It can make for a more effective and less stressful journey. You don’t have to worry about concentrating on driving through traffic. Just sit back with a good book and enjoy the route!

- It’s cost effective. With a number of travel tickets and passes available for regular commuters, you can ultimately save money on what you would have spent on petrol.

- Reduce your carbon footprint.

- Boost your health with any walking distances between bus stops and your final destination.

With the campaign encouraging people to test out new bus routes with discounts and offers, as well as helping them to understand and be informed about other modes of travel that they can get involved with, this could ultimately help lead people to a long term travel change.

Has Catch the Bus Week inspired you to try out a new route to work? Have a look over on our Journey Planner, where you will be able to find all the information you’ll need on bus routes for your selected journey. Or you can head over to our Timetable search to find bus timetables for your specific location.

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