INVESTIGATIONS are ongoing as to what brought buses to standstill in Newport city centre on Tuesday.

Passengers, drivers and staff were left frustrated at lunchtime when they were unable to complete their journeys due to lights failures by the bus station in Friars Walk.

One passenger, Rob Pritchard, was on the bus waiting to leave when the incident happened.

He said: “We were waiting on the bus in the station for about 10 minutes without moving. There were buses everywhere and they were queuing to get into the station.

“Because the buses weren’t able to leave, other buses weren’t able to enter the station, so the queue of buses waiting was very long.

“I was just watching the lights to get out of the station, and they did not change from red.”

Around 10 minutes into the wait passengers, including Mr Pritchard, left the buses and were escorted by staff back into the station.

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“Once a bus has left the bay, it’s actually illegal to leave the bus and walk along the bays, so we were being escorted back,” he said.

Mr Pritchard took photos of the scene of the buses queuing, with the queue for them to enter the station stretching past the Newport Centre.

“After about 45 minutes the lights did change, and buses were able to move. By this point most passengers had gone to get taxis instead," he said.

“The staff were frustrated with what was happening too. One I spoke to said that they’d complained about the lights quite a few times.”

A spokeswoman for Newport Transport confirmed that there had been an incident with the lights, and it had been reported to Newport City Council, which owns the land.

A spokesman for Newport City Council said its highways team has been conducting investigations to determine the cause