The route on the tender isn't on the coastal strip but actually inland.
"Service T10 (Bangor — Betws y Coed — Corwen — Chirk — (Oswestry*)."
For the life of me, I can't understand why there is a need for a regular bus service from Betws to Corwen? Is there some great untapped market from Chirk to Capel? I've driven that part of the A5 many, many times and I've never thought that what it needs is a regular, fast, bus link!!
Trawscymru "Service T10 (Bangor - Betws y Coed - Corwen - Chirk - (Oswestry)."
Trawscymru T11: Machynlleth - Newtown - Welshpool - Wrexham (Mon - Sun)
Trawscymru T12: Machynlleth - Newtown - Montgomery - Welshpool - Wrexham
Thanks for the information , I have spent 6 months trying to get the Welsh Government to confirm these routes ,
Still an absolutely crazy route for the T10, which is purely for the benefit of Ken Skates Welsh Assembly constituents in South Clwyd. Why is the route not going into Wrexham which is a strategic location ??
I assumed the coastal route for the T10 by the fact that Wrexham Borough Council and Conwy Council were involved in discussions on the route. The Welsh Government have refused to answer my questions on the route, which is no surprise now when as you rightly point out there are going to be few passengers on the T10 (Bangor — Betws y Coed — Corwen — Chirk — (Oswestry*) route. With the coastal route across North Wales there would have been a big market but my objection to that was it was already adequately serviced by bus and rail.
However this new T10 route will work very well for the Transport Minister's (Ken Skates) Welsh Assembly constituents in South Clwyd. At Druid,. where the A5 meets the A494, the T10 route will enter Ken Skates country of South Clwyd and also will meet the Trawscymru T3 route a couple of miles further on before Corwen, when the T3 comes back onto the A5 after a 35 minute diversion around villages on a B road . Between Corwen and Llangollen both the T3 and the T10 will run on the same route on the A5 through Ken Skates country. Do not be surprised if there are a few diversions off the main route once the T10 hits Ken Skates country as the part of the T3 route from Bala to Wrexham through Ken Skates country is 80% diversions off the main road.
I could have understood the T10 route if it went (Bangor — Betws y Coed — Corwen — Wrexham) ie from one strategic location (Bangor with good rail/bus links and access from Caernarvon/Anglesey/Holyhead etc) to another strategic location (Wrexham with good access to 2 railway stations / the UK train network and a busy bus station with many bus routes into both North/Mid Wales and England. The Welsh Government T10 route is to Oswestry, which has a railway station, but the railway station is closed and is now the Cambrian Railway Heritage Museum. What is the strategic importance of Oswestry ? The strategic importance of Oswestry is that this T10 Trawscymru service will have to cross the Assembly Constituency of South Clwyd to get to Oswestry . How many passengers will want to go from Bangor to Oswestry and vice versa ?. The Welsh government should publish why the destination of Oswestry has been chosen . Surely they must have done a feasibility study, or a review / business case for these routes which appear to based on a whim.
If the T10 service went to Wrexham , then passengers from Oswestry and Chirk could still easily access the T10 service as there is an hourly Arriva 2A bus service from Oswestry into Wrexham via Chirk and from Chirk there is an hourly train service into Wrexham which takes only 13 minutes . The area is overloaded with bus and train services.
In terms of the number of passengers that can use this T10 route the following figures apply. The population figures are (Bangor
18,808, Bethesda 3,894, Betws-y-Coed 564, Corwen 2,325, Llangollen 3,658, Chirk 4,468,
Oswestry 17,105, Total 50,822) . For the welsh government proposed route to Oswestry the total number of passengers that can use this route is 50,822, which is significantly less than the 61,603 population of Wrexham, which should be the strategic destination of this new T10 service . The Welsh Government should change the T10 to use a direct route from Llangollen using the A5/A483 into Wrexham The part of the route from Llangollen to Oswestry across the Transport Minister’s AM constituency of South Clwyd should be abandoned. The Transport Minister should stop providing Trawscymru routes for the benefit his own AM constituents.
With respect to the Winckler report, which has been completely ignored by the Welsh Government, the T3 route from Wrexham to Barmouth should not have been used by the Welsh Government and the T3 route should run from Wrexham to Aberystwyth . The following are the population figures for these 2 routes.:-
T3 Wrexham to Barmouth (Wrexham 61,603,.Llangollen 3,658, Corwen 2,325, Bala 1,980, Dolgellau 2,678, Barmouth 2,522, , Total 74,766 )
Wrexham to Aberystwyth (Wrexham 61,603,
Oswestry 17,105, Chirk 4,468, Welshpool 6,269, Newtown, 12,783, Caersws 1,586, Llandinam 1,405, Llanidloes 2,929, Aberystwyth 18,965, Total 108,148 )
The Wrexham to Aberystwyth T3 route has the potential of 35,000 more passengers (nearly 50% of the Wrexham/Barmouth total) and has (1) the advantage of removing the 15 minute delays to the T2 in Dolgellau to wait for the T3 from Wrexham, which is destroying connectivity in Aberystwyth between T2 and T1 on the Bangor to Carmarthen route. and (2) the advantage of allowing connection between a Trawscymru service from Wrexham with the T4 to Cardiff in Newtown and the T1 to Carmarthen and the T5 to Cardigan/Haverfordwest/Fishguard in Aberystwyth. Barmouth with a population of 2,522 is not a strategic destination, whereas Aberystwyth with a population of 18,965 is. If you remove the Wrexham population figure from the T3 route totals the results are even more obviously in favour of an Aberystwyth route . The Barmouth route covers a population of 13,163 and the Aberystwyth route covers more than 3 times that figure with a population of 46,545 .
The Wrexham to Machynleth route, (T11/T12), recently announced by the First Minister Carwyn Jones is inadequate. Machynleth with a population
2,235 is not a strategic destination compared to Aberystwyth with a population of 18,965
. Aberystwyth has a University, a large hospital, an extensive shopping area and has 2 Trawscymru routes (T1 and T5) going to South Wales which could be linked to by the new T11/T12 . The route is likely to be taken over by Lloyd’s Coaches of Machynleth, which may be why Machynleth has been chosen as a final destination. However the Welsh Government Transport Strategy, the Winckler report and simple common sense should indicate that the route should be Wrexham to Aberystwyth and not Machynleth. If the Welsh Government do this they will repeat the same mistake they made in 2014 when they chose the T3 Wrexham to Barmouth route instead of the T3 Wrexham to Aberystwyth route.
I find it surprising that the Welsh Government have (1) A Government Transport Minister,(Ken Skates) (2) A Director of Transport (Simon Jones) (3) A deputy Director of Transport (Sheena Hague) (4) A Trawscymru Network Manager (David Hall) (5) A Consultant Professor Stuart Cole (Chairman of the Wales Transport Strategy Group ,Co-author of the published Welsh Government Transport Strategy, and TrawsCymru national bus network Board member) who are all focused on ignoring the Welsh travelling public (ie the passengers) and also focused on ignoring the Winkler review and their own Transport Strategy. The consultant Professor Stuart Cole is supposedly tasked with Trawscymru route development, but the T3 route (D94 in 1965 , X94 under Arriva and now the T3) has remained unchanged in 53 years and the latest proposed routes (T10 Bangor to Oswestry and T11/T12 Wrexham to Machynleth) indicate he is not fulfilling his consultancy role. Instead of employing Directors, Network Managers and Consultants, the Welsh Government should employ a team of bus drivers who I am sure would do a better job.
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