It also has quite a lot of potential, as it's on the shortest practical all Wales north-south rail route, should the Welsh government seek to invest in this.
Indeed both bus and rail services specified / operated by the Senedd!
I think that the main stumbling block is that they want a consistent hourly pattern for the bus (sensibly so) but the train - despite running effectively every three hours - doesn't arrive/depart at a consistent time past each hour. The rail timetable was heavily influenced by the need to connect with Ffestiniog services (BR's Manchester division, Birmingham division and the FR Co. all came together to make it work) but the FR no longer works to those timings any more. The rail timetable needs to be recast to a consistent pattern and the buses retimed to match.
Thats good to know. Im planning a trip to North Wales later this year. I like 197s and 158s. Not at all keen on the other Sprinters though!
I remember in the late-1960s the late-morning train from Llandudno arrived at Blaenau Ffestiniog at 12:27 and the Crosville bus was due to depart for Portmadoc at 12:22. The bus schedule was so slack (due no doubt to trade union pressure) that the driver deliberately departed a few minutes late to avoid crawling along - but never quite late enough to connect off the train. At least once I walked to Tan-y-Bwlch for the Festiniog train!
It may be a pedantic point but the services are specefied by TfW, an agency of the Welsh Government rather than the Senedd and, in the case of the bus, are operated by a private company. The basic point though that the timetables and ticketing should be better aligned is obviously correct.
That's one to put alongside Gaerwen-Amlwch and Carmarthen-Aberystwyth in a worst business case competition.
Early March, I think. they turn up every few months.
Integration between rail and rail is bad enough.
It's bad enough trying to get to/from Llandudno at certain times of day. On non-direct trains you should (and used to) be able to step off of one train (either Up or Down) at Llandudno Junction, walk straight to platform 2 and depart for Llandudno. Simutaneously passengers who had arrived on that shuttle could go straight to main line trains in both directions. With the current timetable, the cynic in me (as a Conductor one's personality is 90% cynic) thinks that the connections are designed to deter people from travelling.
If you had an xx:20/xx:50 symmetry minute then the Avanti and Northern connections at Chester slot in reasonably well. The few Avanti services which extend down the coast can just be considered as crowd-busting extras rather than part of the main service pattern.
It depends on the future growth of north-south travel in Wales. There's likely going to be no more major road improvements, and air wasn't viable, so rail is the only real option.
).Not least because the major population centres tend to be on the eastern side of the country.
Indeed. What north-south travel there was in Victorian times was predominantly on the Marches Line - not least because a change at Pontypool Road provided easy access to the booming communities of the south Wales valleys.
Nor at PenrhynDD, nor even withe the G23 close miss.
I think integrated bus and rail connections are rare in any part of the UK. It would make a lot of sense to start working towards integrating bus and rail throughout the UK in areas where transport is limited, so mainly rural areas with infrequent services. However with the many bus and rail companies organising this will be difficult. Buses often have tight turnaround schedules and crew schedules these days so retiming will affect several journeys or even require a second crew which changes the cost /viability scenario. A change may also not be so convenient for bus passengers along the route affecting timings for school journeys or allowing people to arrive in time for work etc. Ongoing bus connections may be affected. Not to mention the difficulty of changing train schedules. That said the phrase "where there is a will there is a way" comes to mind. For some journeys eg Blaenau connections perhaps there is a solution.
It's a difficult thing to achieve. Let's say the bus runs from town A to the station in town B. The trains at B are hourly at :00 There's only demand for an hourly bus service, the route takes 28 minutes one way end to end. How can you work it?
In cases like that you schedule the bus to be at B around :30. It’s not ideal but it doesn’t stop you integrating the fares, the timetabling (ie timetables are coordinated and change (if required) on the same day) and the liability in the case of delays / missed connections.
We had a bus station where all the departures were :00 so everyone could connect off any bus and onto any other (obviously many routes had other departures too, but all routes had an :00) so it was really good connectivity across the area. But then they changed the train times. Rather than destroy the whole connection and the clock face easy timetable, the missed train connection remained.
The Ffestiniog had its own table in the 1980s national railway timetable book, showing connections at both BF (the stations moved a bit closer around this time) and Minffordd.
7th March this year for a 150, the last time 153s (as a pair) appeared was 11th June 2023 - the last time a single 153 worked was February 2023.
Many thanks for.the information.. I'm also surprised a 150 has worked the Conwy Valley Branch Line so recently
