More than 100 commuters an hour could travel from Penarth to Cardiff by boat as a Cardiff company takes the first step towards having regular water bus services.

At 25 minutes, the journeys on a fleet of five £90,000 boats, which would run every 15 minutes between around 7am and 7pm and stop at Cardiff Central station and Bute Park, could be quicker than commuting by car.

Yet company owners have criticised the Cardiff Council-controlled Cardiff Harbour Authority, saying the boats could go twice as fast if speed restrictions on the River Taff were lifted.

A CAR burst into flames on a busy dual carriageway in Cardiff today.

South Wales fire and rescue service were called at midday to the Cardiff bay-bound carriageway of Dunleavey Drive, Grangetown, after a black Volkswagen caught on fire.

Cardiff council has moved to curb the soaring number of taxis in the city today – against the legal advice of its own officers.
The decision was made at a meeting of the council’s Public Protection Committee this afternoon. The public gallery was crammed with taxi drivers, who had organised a protest about the issue outside County Hall before the meeting started.
Current policy is to issue a taxi license to any applicant with a vehicle that meets the council’s standards. But drivers say this has led to a huge rise in the number of taxis in the city over the past two years, to almost 1,000.

Cardiff is gearing up for a host of new challenges as the Six Nations rolls into town for Wales’s first Friday night home game, bringing with it an expected 100,000 supporters.
The police, trains, taxis and street pastors are all making plans for operations in the city before, during and after tonight’s clash with France at the Millenium Stadium.

South Wales’s independent lifeboat service’s are going orange today (Fri) in a bid to raise awareness of the dangers of the open water.
The Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA), which has operated on the rivers and estuaries of the River Severn for 35 years, is one of more than 150 independent lifeboat associations across the UK.

An interview with Simon Hoare, the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Cardiff South and Penarth, at his home in Atlantic Wharf, Butetown.
Mr Hoare spoke about MPs’ expenses, his experiences of campaigning against Alun Michael, devolution in Wales, public sector cuts and the future of South Wales’s economy, among other topics.

CARDIFF’S driving test centre is to perform a basic manoeuvre as it relocates just around the corner.
The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) confirmed they will be relocating from their current location at Norbury Road, Fairwater, to another site they have already identified within the Fairwater area.
Pamela Matthews of the DSA said: “We have not submitted a planning application to the Council, but we are currently in negotiations with the landlord.”
She said there will be no redundancies as a consequence of the move, nor will there be any new positions created. She …

Work is due to begin on a new school “safety zone” to stop speeding drivers and make the roads around a Cardiff primary school safer.
The construction of a zebra crossing and the narrowing of several junctions on Pen y Wain Road is due to start next week and is scheduled to last around six weeks.
Roath Park Primary School headteacher, Colin Skinner, was delighted with the plan and said the children had been involved in pushing for the changes.
He said: “It’s amazing, it’s the result of a lot of hard work …

It was all change yet again in Cardiff city centre last week, as the council implemented phase one of its plan to pedestrianise St Mary Street and High Street.
Of course, you could be forgiven for thinking we were well past the early stages of the plan and nearing completion. But the last two and a half years, which have seen partial pedestrianisation and the replacement of gas pipes running under the street, have in fact been nothing but a prelude.

Cardiff traffic wardens are to be made ambassadors for the city, while also being given more powers, in a scheme aimed at making them more personable.

The consultation period ended today and the proposal, which will see traffic wardens become part of the council staff rather than the police, will encourage them to be on the look out for littering, fly tipping, and offer tourists advice and help.