A new bus service which runs between Burnham-on-Sea and Cheddar starts today (Tuesday).

The Route 48 bus service starts in Burnham, in Pier Street, and will run through Brent Knoll, East Brent, Rooksbridge, Tarnock, Cross, Axbridge and Cheddar. The service will run two days per week, Tuesday and Friday, providing three return journeys each day and is being operated by the county council’s fleet minibuses.

The new service comes after Somerset County Council made a successful bid to the Department for Transport for funding to improve and restore some local bus services in Somerset. Somerset County Council said some of the proposals were to restore the link between Burnham and Cheddar, which was lost several years ago when the old Route 490 service was withdrawn.

A Somerset County Council spokesman said: “The funding will support the service for at least 18 months, depending on passenger uptake, and we are planning to include all the service improvements we are making with this funding in our National Bus Strategy, Bus Service Improvement plan, in the hope that we can secure more long term funding and if the service is successful look to increase the days of operation over time.”

Somerset County Council has posted timetables onto relevant bus stops as of this week.

To view up-to-date timetables of bus services in Somerset, visit https://www.travelsomerset.co.uk/bus/