Readers of this thread might be interested in Roger French's account of his visit to south-west Wales. He also caught the T1C to Cardiff. Among other things he comments on publicity, connections and ridership.
I read Roger's account with a certain sense of deja-vu, as some of the comments he makes reflects concerns in this forum.
Roger also mentions the concern of Passenger Transport Magazine that routes have been introduced without any assessment of the value for money they might or might not provide
Yes agree with Roger. Poor publicity, connections, ridership and routes introduced without any assessment of the value for money they might or might not provide.
This has all been covered before.
The publicity is worse now than it ever was and Roger's example of the 460 is a perfect example.
The attitude towards introduction of new routes is to choose an existing local bus service and make it into another Trawscymru Service. That way the Trawscymru map is expanded and those passengers previously using the local services boost the Trawscymru passenger numbers. There are no cars removed from the roads and the same passengers use the rebranded services. There are numerous examples of this eg T11,T12,T19. All these services needed no assessment as they were already existing services and only required rebranding. What is missing is a Strategy and assessment of the cost of providing a network consisting of "truly Long Distance Services"
The T19 has now been removed as predicted on the previous thread. How can you have a T19 Trawscymru route that links 2 places that are not connected to the Trawscymru network? The T19 was a local service through and through and returns to being a local service.
Roger's comments regarding the T5, the splitting of the T5 route, diversions into Parcllyn, Aberporth ,New Quay and code “NG” which means "No guaranteed connection at Cardigan" all explain why passenger numbers are now low on the route which in 2018 carried the highest number of passengers of any Trawscymru route (above 550,000).
The “NG” is particularly annoying as it is applied on all Trawscymru services along the West Coast (both Cardigan and Aberystwyth) whilst services supplying Wrexham and Corwen (T3, T10 and T12) all have delayed departures under Quality Partnership Agreements in place at Dolgellau, Corwen and Newtown). My experience mirrors Roger's and passenger numbers on the T5 will be nowhere near the 2017-2018 figure (above 550,000).
The passenger experience is one of long journey times, confusion over connection timings, missed connections and eventual recognition that long distance travel by Trawscymru bus is not an option for any journey of more than 50 miles and any journey less than 50 miles can be a frustrating experience if there are connections involved .
The Welsh Government (WG) say they have transferred Governance of the Trawscymru Network to Transport for Wales (TfW) and have removed the Trawscymru 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 Annual reports from the WG website.
Those reports highlighted passenger statistics for each individual Trawscymru service but were acknowledged to be incorrect.
TfW have confirmed, (FOIA 53/23 - I cannot provide a link as 2023 requests are not on the TfW website), that they took over governance in April 2021 but will not be producing Trawscymru Annual reports, although TfW have been reporting KPIs on rail services from April 2021 covering a range of statistics including punctuality and ridership. This is puzzling as TfW have telematic data available to provide Trawscymru KPIs for each service.
https://tfw.wales/about-us/transparency/performance
Currently on the T1C tender specs and there is some interesting news on the new contract. I hadn't noticed it before but they intend on making some changes.
The bus will now take 4h 10 each way so much longer than previously but there are some more stops.
And misses the last T2 northbound by 20 minutes as a result...
I hope that is something that Lloyds bring up with the top of the range, 100% know what they are doing, TrawsCymru Service Delivery Board.
I have a great deal of sympathy for Lloyds with respect to the T1C now failing to connect with the T2 in the evening . Lloyds were instrumental in providing a T2 connection with the T1C in the morning and brought forward the T2 departure time in Dolgellau to arrive in Aberystwyth at 09:23 to allow connection with the T1C departing at 9.30.
The Governance structure pre TfW involvement was TrawsCymru STRATEGY BOARD deciding route changes/new routes/ and TrawsCymru Service Delivery Groups comprising County Councils, Bus Operator, Bus Users Cymru, Regional Bus Compliance Officer and Chaired by a Welsh Government (WG) Employee (Trawscymru Network Services Manager – who for obvious reasons also sat on the TrawsCymru STRATEGY BOARD).
The T2 TrawsCymru Service Delivery Group would have been the forum where Lloyds would have brought up the T1C missing the last T2 northbound by 20 minutes as a result of the T1C timetable changes.
However it is not clear whether the TrawsCymru Service Delivery Groups, which covered performance of each service, are still in existence. In FOIA 53/23 TfW did however say they were not using the TrawsCymru Strategy Board but did not expand on how TfW would assess the introduction of new TrawsCymru Services.
The T1C travels 99 miles in 4h 10 mins and is not an option for a long distance service. Aberystwyth to London bus travels 236 miles and takes 6h 45mins .
It seems strange that the T1S was removed and its removal justified because joint ticketing was introduced to use the train from Carmarthen to Swansea and yet now the T1C is being diverted into Swansea.
T1A is planned operate via an alternative route between Aberystwyth and Lampeter.
The T1A is actually operating on the 585 Aberystwyth to Lampeter via Tregaron route after reduction of the 585 service. This is another example of a local bus service being placed on the Trawscymru network to provide an expanded map and an increase in Trawscymru passenger numbers.
Nobody wins by this arrangement. The same passengers who used the 585 will use the T1A . Passengers on the 585 route will gain no time by using the T1A as opposed to the 585 connecting in Lampeter with the previous 9.40 T1 departure from Aberystwyth via Aberaeron.
This will actually reduce passenger numbers.
Passengers at all points between Aberystwyth, Aberaeron and Lampeter on the T1 route will lose their ability to reach destinations between Aberaeron Lampeter and Pencader using the old 9.40 T1 . Whilst it looks good on paper (ie expanding the network with the new T1A route) it is the old story of converting a low passenger base local service into a Trawscymru (supposedly long distance) route.
Aberystwyth to Lampeter via Tregaron is a low passenger base local route and Aberystwyth to Lampeter via Aberaeron is a high passenger base Trawscymru route.
The old 9.40 T1 Aberystwyth departure was criticised because it was 10 minutes after the T1C. The real problem was the choice of the T1C Aberystwyth departure time at a random 9-30 which unbelievably failed to connect with the incoming T2 which arrived at the same time 9-30. The T1C Aberystwyth departure time should have been earlier and should have considered connecting with the T2 and not conflicting with the T1 timings.
The only result of this change will be a reduction in passenger numbers on the T1/T1A/T1X. It begs the question whether the T1/T1A/T1X will have their Service Delivery performance monitored separately or will they be lumped together as the T1 and how will the T1 TrawsCymru Service Delivery Group operate if there is a number of different bus operators involved.
Celtic Travels's trunk routes seem to be half-heartedly marketed as TrawsCymru Connect. These are:
X47 Aberystwyth - Llangurig - Rhayader - Llandrindod
X75 Shrewsbury - Welshpool - Newtown - Llanidloes - Llangurig
I would favour:-
(1) The T12 to operate from Aberystwyth to Wrexham allowing links with T1/T5 and T2 in Aberystwyth and employing a direct route Aberystwyth, Llangurig, Llanidloes, Newtown, Welshpool, Oswestry, Wrexham with NO diversions and with links with Trawscymru Connect services in Llangurig (T47 from Llandrindod Wells ) and Welshpool (T75 from Shrewsbury).
(2) The X75 (Shrewsbury – Rhayader) to be curtailed at Welshpool taking 45 mins and rebranded as T75 Shrewsbury – Welshpool. This would allow doubling of the frequency of the T75. The T75 could be timed to connect with the T12 in Welshpool. (3) The X47 ( Llandrindod Wells – Aberystwyth) to be curtailed at Llangurig , rebranded as T47 and connect with the T12. This would allow the X47 route to be extended eastward from Llandrindod Wells via Kington to Hereford . This would take say an extra 1 hour 30 mins plus the 45 mins Llandrindod Wells – Llangurig ie approx 2.25 hours journey for rebranded T47 which is 30 mins more than current X47 journey Llandrindod Wells to Aberystwyth
There is already a link between South Wales and Hereford with the T4 bus and Heart of Wales train line but no bus link from Mid Wales to Hereford. T4 (Brecon to Hereford) operates every 2 hours with a run time of 1 hour 55 minutes. A rebranded T47 could provide such a link.
busandtrainuser.com
