The city is excellently served with transport links — the M4 motorway comes within a mile (1.6 km) of the city centre, and Newport has six junctions. The Great Western main railway line also passes through the heart of the city, stopping at High Street station. Cardiff is well linked with Newport, with train and bus services between the cities every 5 minutes.

Road

The principal east—west roads are the M4 motorway and A48. The A48 serves as an alternative to the M4 for travelling west. It is also the primary road for travelling to rural Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire. The principal north—south roads are the A467 and A4042 and A449 trunk roads. The A467 and A4042 connect the surrounding valleys to the city and motorway network, and the A449 connects Newport to the Midlands. All are high-speed dual carriageways.

Bus

The municipal bus service is provided by the council-owned Newport Transport, who provide the "Newport Bus" branded service in the city. Other operators including Stagecoach in South Wales, Francis Drake Travel, Terry Ward, Cardiff Bus and Welcome Travel also served the city. Newport bus station is a large and thriving terminus.

Rail

Newport is connected directly to the Great Western Main Line, Welsh Marches Line, Gloucester to Newport Line and Ebbw Valley Line. The Great Western line provides high-speed connections to Cardiff and London primarily, and also other towns and cities such as Swansea, Swindon and Reading. There are also train services directly to Birmingham, Southampton, Manchester, Nottingham, Derby, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Gloucester, Swansea, West Wales, the South Wales Valleys and many other smaller towns.

Air

Cardiff, Bristol and Heathrow Airports are within driving distance via the M4, for those travelling by plane.

• The Riverfront Arts Centre — this was the first structure to be built as part of Newport's regeneration by Newport City Council.

• The Southern Distributor Road, including a new road bridge over the Usk, is completed, improving access and opening up new areas for development.

• Improving the city centre road network, including Kingsway and Queensway, which will be turned into boulevards.

• A new foot and cycle bridge called the Newport City footbridge is now open.

• The city centre is currently being expanded to take in areas of the east bank. The area of land between Newport Bridge and George Street Bridge is being developed as a £43 million high-density combined commercial and residential area, joined to the west bank by the new footbridge. The plan shows a strong urban form along the river front, emphasised with tall landmark buildings.

• The Cambrian Centre on Queensway Boulevard, near Newport railway station, will be redeveloped to include a 31-storey, 100 metre tall block of apartments and four-star hotel, and a 10-storey office block, with a new retail area on the first few floors. The new buildings will be known as City Spires.

• A new £210 million city centre shopping complex known as Friars Walk including a Debenhams department store and multiplex cinema, will be created in time for the 2010 Ryder Cup in Newport.[11] This complex will complement the adjacent Kingsway Shopping Centre, which is undergoing its own £20 million refurbishment and expansion, due to be completed by the end of 2007.

• Permission has been granted to turn the Grade II-listed former Art College in the east of the city centre into luxury apartments.

• The bus and railway stations will be extensively redeveloped. Work on the bus station is due to start shortly, whilst work on platform 4 of Newport railway station has already started, and is due to be completed by Summer 2007. The railway station's connection with the Ebbw Valley Line is due to be completed by 2009. Two further stations in the city's suburbs of Pye Corner and Rogerstone situated along the Ebbw Valley Line will also be re-opened, and four others are planned in the city's Unitary Development Plan. • Thousands of homes will be built, especially in the Riverside area, near Pill.

• There are proposals to transform the disused Llanwern steelworks into 4,000 houses, shops and other facilities, with the creation of up to 6,000 jobs.

• A state-of-the-art hospital is planned to be built. Many local residents have suggested that the new District General Hospital be built at the Whiteheads site now the old Corus facility has closed, but no final site has been approved.

• A new M4 bypass skirting the southern edge of the urban area of Newport is to built, reducing the congestion on the existing motorway and making Newport and the surrounding areas more accessible.

• There are also calls for a barrage across the River Usk to be incorporated with the M4 bypass, so the level of the river stays permanently at high tide level, or possibly a barrage across the River Severn.

• In the next few years, a £50 million riverside University campus will be constructed adjacent to the new footbridge on the west bank.

Businesses in the city centre include the Passport Office for much of the south and west of the UK, and the Wales headquarters of the Charity Commission and British Red Cross.

Businesses on the west side of the city include: The headquarters of the Office for National Statistics, the headquarters of the Patent Office, the headquarters of Wales and West Utilities, a large Panasonic manufacturing plant, a manufacturing plant for International Rectifier and the shared-service centre for HM Prison Service. There is a huge plant on the Celtic Lakes business and science park originally built for the LG Group, but market conditions led to the semiconductor plant never opening, and the CRT plant eventually closing. There are many plans for the site, including transforming it into a conference centre along the lines of the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham or a large super-casino.

Industry in the east of Newport was formerly based on the Corus steelworks at Llanwern, and although the rolling mill is still active, steel manufacture ceased in 2001. The land formerly used for manufacturing is currently being redeveloped to provide 4,000 homes and up to 6,000 jobs.