TrawsCambria / TrawsCymru

[anthony263]

Does anybody have any idea when the T1C coach is back in service? Usually NAT used to update before Trawscymru - or is it likely after Easter?

The situation is being reviewed after Easter.

 

[Markdvdman]

The situation is being reviewed after Easter.

Ah thank you good news that!

 

[mangyiscute]

Does anyone know what the allocation for the T3 tends to be? I did it a while ago and had to wait an hour for a double-decker. I want to do it again (once its allowed, I'm from England so can't currently travel into Wales) but I want to know how many double-deckers tend to run on the route compared to single deckers, and also if they tend to be at the same time each day.

 

[Bwsbro]

Does anyone know what the allocation for the T3 tends to be. Did it a while ago and had to wait an hour for a double-decker, want to do it again (once its allowed, I'm from England so can't currently travel into wales) but want to know how many double-deckers tend to run on the route compared to single deckers, and also if they tend to be at the same time each day

Normally deckers are allocated on journeys which incorporate a school run. At present one of the T3 deckers operates on the T2 daily due to school requirements in the Bangor area.

 

[johntrawscymru]

Does anyone know what the allocation for the T3 tends to be? I did it a while ago and had to wait an hour for a double-decker. I want to do it again (once its allowed, I'm from England so can't currently travel into Wales) but I want to know how many double-deckers tend to run on the route compared to single deckers, and also if they tend to be at the same time each day.

Have a nice time. Go on weekday outside school holidays and you will probably have bus to yourself once you get past Llangollen. Go on a weekend in Winter and pretty much the same . Beware of Summer weekends as this route has been labelled the "party bus" by the drivers (See

Gran who was urinated on by drunken louts says free service ...​

https://www.dailypost.co.uk › ... › North Wales Police).
CORRECTED 26/08/2021 the above URL should read.
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/woman-bus-driver-urinated-drunken-14924548

This route has few passengers and was championed by the Welsh Transport Minister (Ken Skates). The T3 route runs through his constituency and he introduced Free Weekend Travel purely to boost T3 passenger numbers. This did not work so he then went on to try to get new Trawscymru services (T10,T15) to provide extra passengers for the T3 by linking these 2 services with the T3 at Corwen in his constituency. This did not work either so he asked his officials to falsify T3 passenger numbers in 2 Annual reports. This is now under investigation by South Wales Police as it is a criminal offence. (see attached).
Would be interested to hear of your experiences and well worth the trip - Magnificent scenery on top of the DD.

 

[markymark2000]

Have a nice time. Go on weekday outside school holidays and you will probably have bus to yourself once you get past Llangollen. Go on a weekend in Winter and pretty much the same . Beware of Summer weekends as this route has been labelled the "party bus" by the drivers (See

Gran who was urinated on by drunken louts says free service ...​

https://www.dailypost.co.uk › ... › North Wales Police).

This route has few passengers and was championed by the Welsh Transport Minister (Ken Skates). The T3 route runs through his constituency and he introduced Free Weekend Travel purely to boost T3 passenger numbers. This did not work so he then went on to try to get new Trawscymru services (T10,T15) to provide extra passengers for the T3 by linking these 2 services with the T3 at Corwen in his constituency. This did not work either so he asked his officials to falsify T3 passenger numbers in 2 Annual reports. This is now under investigation by South Wales Police as it is a criminal offence. (see attached).
Would be interested to hear of your experiences and well worth the trip - Magnificent scenery on top of the DD.

That's a very interesting letter. I must say. Dodgy Welsh Govt, who'd have thought it. Ken Skates and the team are dodgy as heck. Welsh Govt is very much like the UK DFT. They have basically zero public accountability and just do as they please because they have friends in high places who will protect them through any wrongdoing.

 

[johntrawscymru]

Wonder why the Trawscymru T15 Chester to Corwen is not open for discussion ??

Wonder why the Trawscymru T15 Chester to Corwen is not open for discussion ??

Try again and see whether the T15 Chester to Corwen is open for discussion.
Funny how the WSG always take the easy option and new Trawscymru routes like the T7 simply take over existing services and are not part of a strategy for the Trawscymru network . In July 2019 a consultant was appointed to carry out a 2020 – 2025 review of the Trawscymru network . ( See networkhttps://www.keybuses.com/article/strategic-review-trawscymru). The investigation regarding the full Trawscymru network was completed in 2019, but has not been published. A report by the consultant, speciific to North Wales, surfaced a year later in July 2020 on Gwynedd Council website at https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymr...he 2020 North Wales Regional Bus Strategy.pdf. The consultant explained that during the year long investigation he had been able to consult only one bus service provider, the Managing Director of Arriva Wales, because of the Covid19 pandemic, which began in Wales on 28/02/2020. Between July 2019 and March 2020 there was no pandemic. In the period March 2020 to July 2020, during the pandemic, the consultant could not write a letter, use the phone, or use email, to contact other bus service providers and is therefore a strange consultant indeed. The Gwynedd Council report recommended a T15 Trawscymru service between Chester and Corwen based on an existing Arriva X3 Chester– Mold Express. The T15 would link to the T3 Wrexham to Barmouth service at Corwen in the Transport Minister's constituency of South Clwyd and thereby improve the poor T3 (Wrexham to Barmouth), passenger figures . In other words the T15 has a similar objective to the T10 Oswestry to Bangor Service via Corwen, (put out to tender in 2018). which was also planned to connect with the T3 (Wrexham to Barmouth) at Corwen . The consultant involved other consultants in the report , one of which was Southampton University which turned out to be his son . The other was Transport Cymru Consultancy bought for £1 for 6 months of the year long investigation by a Gwynedd Councillor.

In the past, the Welsh First Minister has concluded that the Ministerial Code was broken when the Transport Minister provided funding “off the record” and outside the BSSG to the Managing Director of Arriva Wales between 2017 and 2020 for a local Bus Service between Wrexham and Llangollen through the Transport Minister's constituency. However the First Minister said there was “no impropriety” by the Transport Minister despite the fact that funding was organised by personal letters between the 2 men and the Transport Minister signing off with “Yours Ever, Ken” . The First Minister said Welsh Government Officials were at fault for not following procedures even though the Officials were only involved after the Transport Minister had made the funding arrangement . So Officials breach the Ministerial Code not Ministers . A request to publish the Ministerial Code Investigation report was turned down on the basis that the Welsh First Minister did not want to jeopardise the provision of “free and frank” advice by Welsh Government Officials in future investigations. See
Bus funding probe: 'No impropriety' by Welsh minister - BBC ...
https://www.bbc.co.uk › uk-wales-politics-50845081
The Welsh First Minister has refused to investigate the circumstances surrounding the T15 proposal and it will be interesting to see how the Arriva T15 service progresses once we get back to normality and travel between England and Wales will be possible. Seven years on from the Bevan Foundation Review of Trawscymru in 2014, which was suppressed and not acted upon until 2016, there is still no strategic plan for the network and the comment by a Welsh Assembly member in 2016 still applies that decisions on new routes are being taken “”in a Silo””.

 

[Markdvdman]

They tweeted me to say subject to Government Guidelines and all that, they hope to restart the T1C service on Friday, 16th April. Good news that!

 

[mangyiscute]

Sorry if it's been brought up earlier, but does anyone know when the T19 and T22 are likely to start running? I'm planning to go to Snowdonia in August and would love to take a ride

 

[krus_aragon]

Sorry if it's been brought up earlier, but does anyone know when the T19 and T22 are likely to start running? I'm planning to go to Snowdonia in August and would love to take a ride

I've no detailed news, but it's definitely not imminent: Llew Jones have just published new timetables for the existing 19 and X19 services, effective tomorrow (12th April).

 

[WelshBuses93]

Tender for Service T22

View notice - Sell2Wales

 

[Llandudno]

Tender for Service T22

View notice - Sell2Wales

2022 then!

 

[krus_aragon]

Gwynedd council have recently attached some documents to the tender linked above. Here are some choice snippets:

The depot is to be located at Tanygrisiau (near Blaenau), and will provide charging points for six electric buses. Three will operate the T22 service to Porthmadog/Caernarfon , the other 3 will be for the T19.

The depot, and the T22 service, is due to start operation in September 2021. The "market engagement" document states that the T19 (to be let by Conwy Council) is to start with Diesel buses on the 10th of May 2021, and switch to electric when the depot opens in September.

A timetable was included in the documents, I've attached a copy below. It outlines the planned services for the T22 (and lists the T2 services it runs alongside north or Porthmadog). The Sunday service is subject to negotiation with the bidders.

No illustrative timetable for the T19, but the fact that they'll be operated by three buses (and the current X19 service is almost exclusively operated by one) lets us take a guess at the likely frequency.

 

[Bletchleyite]

No illustrative timetable for the T19, but the fact that they'll be operated by three buses (and the current X19 service is almost exclusively operated by one) lets us take a guess at the likely frequency.

Logic might be to operate it hourly, but with a one hour gap in the hour when the train runs? (The train in normal times is very close to 3 hourly clockface, and no doubt with a bit of adjustment could be brought to actually being clockface). Add fully interchangeable ticketing and you've got a very useful service.

 

[krus_aragon]

Logic might be to operate it hourly, but with a one hour gap in the hour when the train runs? (The train in normal times is very close to 3 hourly clockface, and no doubt with a bit of adjustment could be brought to actually being clockface). Add fully interchangeable ticketing and you've got a very useful service.

The current X19 service takes about 1hr 15m to go from Llandudno to Blaenau (or vice versa), so it'd be three hours for a round-trip diagram. But we'd need to add on time for the buses to charge up at the Blaenau end. A look at the T22 illustrative timetable shows each vehicle charging for up to an hour before leaving Blaenau again. So that makes the round-trip time effectively four hours for each bus.

On that basis, you could operate a stand-alone two-hourly service with two buses (leaving the third as a hot standby for either T19 or T22 services), or indeed use three buses and run them two out of every three hours around the train service.

Based on the old (non-Covid) timetable, you could have departures from Blaenau along the lines of:

06:30: Train
07:30: Bus 1
08:30: Train
09:30: Bus 2
10:30: Bus 3:
11:30: Train
12:30: Bus 1
13:30: Bus 2
14:30: Train
15:30: Bus 3
16:30: Bus 1
17:30: Train
18:30: Bus 2
19:30: Bus 3
20:30: Train

 

[Bletchleyite]

I really hope that is what they do, as that would be transformative to the utility of public transport on the corridor.

 

[markymark2000]

Not 1 of those bus trips link up with the advertised trains. I mean, some trips have 2 minutes between train arrival and bus departure.... That isn't oging to happen and the 14:31 train arrival links into the 14:30 bus departure... Eh? I don't suppose Blaenau has a Dr Who time traveling Tardis do they?


Silly timetable with random frequencies. I think perfect example of why we need professionals sorting buses, not overpaid, underskilled civil servants and braindead MPs (or the Welsh Govt equivalent). With 3 buses, an hourly service could be achieved.

 

[Welshman]

Not 1 of those bus trips link up with the advertised trains. I mean, some trips have 2 minutes between train arrival and bus departure.... That isn't oging to happen and the 14:31 train arrival links into the 14:30 bus departure... Eh? I don't suppose Blaenau has a Dr Who time traveling Tardis do they?

No, but perhaps they're going to build a new zipwire to allow those alighting the train at 2022 to connect with the bus at 2056 - from Tan y Bwlch

 

[algytaylor]

The current X19 service takes about 1hr 15m to go from Llandudno to Blaenau (or vice versa), so it'd be three hours for a round-trip diagram. But we'd need to add on time for the buses to charge up at the Blaenau end. A look at the T22 illustrative timetable shows each vehicle charging for up to an hour before leaving Blaenau again. So that makes the round-trip time effectively four hours for each bus.

On that basis, you could operate a stand-alone two-hourly service with two buses (leaving the third as a hot standby for either T19 or T22 services), or indeed use three buses and run them two out of every three hours around the train service.

Based on the old (non-Covid) timetable, you could have departures from Blaenau along the lines of:

06:30: Train
07:30: Bus 1
08:30: Train
09:30: Bus 2
10:30: Bus 3:
11:30: Train
12:30: Bus 1
13:30: Bus 2
14:30: Train
15:30: Bus 3
16:30: Bus 1
17:30: Train
18:30: Bus 2
19:30: Bus 3
20:30: Train

Don't know how feasible these things are, but that would be a really sensible & transformative move, and a good model for how 'metro' services could work elsewhere.

 

[anthony263]

Service T1c has started running again from today but only on Friday Saturday and sundays

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not 1 of those bus trips link up with the advertised trains. I mean, some trips have 2 minutes between train arrival and bus departure.... That isn't oging to happen and the 14:31 train arrival links into the 14:30 bus departure... Eh? I don't suppose Blaenau has a Dr Who time traveling Tardis do they?

They might, of course, be planning to tweak the train timetable to fit but haven't published that yet.

At the moment arrivals at Blaenau are 0832, 1134, 1437 and 1732. I can't really see any good reason for them being off by a couple of minutes like that when the Coast line is near enough clockface, so if they are going to genuinely combine it with a Traws bus in the other two hours (which would be a really, really good thing and form the best public transport service the corridor has ever had) they will probably want to regularise that to precisely every 3 hours, which could well mean pulling it a bit earlier meaning it will connect with those buses.

If both are TfW they could even, you know, wait for it, hold the bus if the train is late and vice versa. Now wouldn't that be shocking?

 

[markymark2000]

They might, of course, be planning to tweak the train timetable to fit but haven't published that yet.

At the moment arrivals at Blaenau are 0832, 1134, 1437 and 1732. I can't really see any good reason for them being off by a couple of minutes like that when the Coast line is near enough clockface, so if they are going to genuinely combine it with a Traws bus in the other two hours (which would be a really, really good thing and form the best public transport service the corridor has ever had) they will probably want to regularise that to precisely every 3 hours, which could well mean pulling it a bit earlier meaning it will connect with those buses.

If both are TfW they could even, you know, wait for it, hold the bus if the train is late and vice versa. Now wouldn't that be shocking?

I am basing the train arrivals off the timetable document attached above.

I know they can hold buses, that's all fine but you can't hold buses for a connection which isn't timetabled for. You would just change the bus timetables to suit to give the 5-10 minute connection time. Not 3 minutes or -1 minute.
If a train is late, by all means, hold a bus. Don't intentionally make a bus late though because you are so mentally incapable of providing sufficient connection time for passengers in the timetable.

 

[johntrawscymru]

Ken Skates steps down from cabinet to concentrate on constituency

The member of the Welsh parliament who represents Chirk and the north Shropshire border is stepping away from being a minister.

www.shropshirestar.com

Ken Skates has stepped down from his role as as minister of economy, transport and North Wales saying that "Clwyd South has always remained my number one priority, and my decision will enable me to spend more time in the constituency, focusing on local matters,””.
Unfortunately, with this explanation, Ken Skates is articulating what he has been inappropriately doing during his 5 years as Transport Minister in providing bus services for the benefit of his South Clwyd constituents. Hopefully we will now receive from the Welsh Government a true and correct picture of the annual T2/T3 passenger figures , a true analysis of the Free Weekend Travel scheme (which has been spectacularly unsuccessful) and a full review of the Trawscymru network. The WG should never again indulge in the fabrication of Trawscymru T2/T3 passenger figures which they carried out in June 2019. The WG should also not indulge in the fabrication of a “High-Level” review of a Trawscymru Wrexham to Aberystwyth service, which they also carried out in the same month of June 2019 The fabricated “”High-Level”” review made no mention of a Trawscymru route between Wrexham and Aberystwyth which had been ignored for the second time. Trawscymru services such as the T10 (Oswestry to Bangor via Corwen) and T15 (Chester to Corwen) both linking with the T3 at a hub at the small town of Corwen in South Clwyd, (population 2325), should not be imposed on the public without an appropriate thorough evaluation and consultation by stakehoders,

Trawscymru is supposedly a long distance network linking strategic locations in Wales. The idea that a T3 service between Wrexham and a non strategic location of Barmouth (population 2,552) should take precedence over a truly strategic route (T2/T1 Bangor to Carmarthen via Aberystwyth) is a joke. There is now no connectivity between T2 and T1 services in Aberystwyth on the original Trawscambria route which has no other form of public transport since the axeing of the Carmarthen to Aberystwyth railway in 1965. The idea that a T2 service between Bangor and Aberystwyth should be delayed for 15 minutes in Dolgellau to wait for a late arriving double decker T3 service from Wrexham is a joke. The joke is even funnier when the late arriving T3 double decker service carries only a handful of passengers none of whom wish to transfer to the T2 service which have been held up unnecessarily for 15 minutes. The T2 should be a through service in Dolgellau with no wait for T3 services from Wrexham and the 15 minute connectivity should be transferred to the connection between the T2/T1 services in Aberystwyth.

The reason the T2 services have to be held in Dolgellau for 15 minutes for late arriving T3 services from Wrexham is because between Corwen and Bala the T3 double deckers divert for 14 miles along the B4401 through the Clwyd South constituency of Ken Skates. These services frequently pick up and drop off no passengers along the B4401. In 2019, after 2 years of lieing by WG officials saying they deleted all bus performance monitoring data , the WG were finally forced by a High Court Tribunal to release the bus performance monitoring information, which showed that the T3 service was the only Trawscymru service to not meet the Traffic Commissioners Punctuality standard. The High Court Tribunal found against the WG and asked them to publish the bus performance monitoring information on a regular basis as part of the WG publication scheme. To date the WG have not complied with the High Court request.

The Transport portfolio has now been passed to a newly created Climate Change Ministry which has a wide brief covering environment, energy, housing, planning and transport. It remains to be seen whether the new Minister will right the wrongs left by Ken Skates.

 

[markymark2000]

So glad that he has stepped down. Hopefully someone with half a braincell and a lot less corrupt gets the job.

 

[Bwsbro]

Ken Skates steps down from cabinet to concentrate on constituency

The member of the Welsh parliament who represents Chirk and the north Shropshire border is stepping away from being a minister.

www.shropshirestar.com

Ken Skates has stepped down from his role as as minister of economy, transport and North Wales saying that "Clwyd South has always remained my number one priority, and my decision will enable me to spend more time in the constituency, focusing on local matters,””.
Unfortunately, with this explanation, Ken Skates is articulating what he has been inappropriately doing during his 5 years as Transport Minister in providing bus services for the benefit of his South Clwyd constituents. Hopefully we will now receive from the Welsh Government a true and correct picture of the annual T2/T3 passenger figures , a true analysis of the Free Weekend Travel scheme (which has been spectacularly unsuccessful) and a full review of the Trawscymru network. The WG should never again indulge in the fabrication of Trawscymru T2/T3 passenger figures which they carried out in June 2019. The WG should also not indulge in the fabrication of a “High-Level” review of a Trawscymru Wrexham to Aberystwyth service, which they also carried out in the same month of June 2019 The fabricated “”High-Level”” review made no mention of a Trawscymru route between Wrexham and Aberystwyth which had been ignored for the second time. Trawscymru services such as the T10 (Oswestry to Bangor via Corwen) and T15 (Chester to Corwen) both linking with the T3 at a hub at the small town of Corwen in South Clwyd, (population 2325), should not be imposed on the public without an appropriate thorough evaluation and consultation by stakehoders,

Trawscymru is supposedly a long distance network linking strategic locations in Wales. The idea that a T3 service between Wrexham and a non strategic location of Barmouth (population 2,552) should take precedence over a truly strategic route (T2/T1 Bangor to Carmarthen via Aberystwyth) is a joke. There is now no connectivity between T2 and T1 services in Aberystwyth on the original Trawscambria route which has no other form of public transport since the axeing of the Carmarthen to Aberystwyth railway in 1965. The idea that a T2 service between Bangor and Aberystwyth should be delayed for 15 minutes in Dolgellau to wait for a late arriving double decker T3 service from Wrexham is a joke. The joke is even funnier when the late arriving T3 double decker service carries only a handful of passengers none of whom wish to transfer to the T2 service which have been held up unnecessarily for 15 minutes. The T2 should be a through service in Dolgellau with no wait for T3 services from Wrexham and the 15 minute connectivity should be transferred to the connection between the T2/T1 services in Aberystwyth.

The reason the T2 services have to be held in Dolgellau for 15 minutes for late arriving T3 services from Wrexham is because between Corwen and Bala the T3 double deckers divert for 14 miles along the B4401 through the Clwyd South constituency of Ken Skates. These services frequently pick up and drop off no passengers along the B4401. In 2019, after 2 years of lieing by WG officials saying they deleted all bus performance monitoring data , the WG were finally forced by a High Court Tribunal to release the bus performance monitoring information, which showed that the T3 service was the only Trawscymru service to not meet the Traffic Commissioners Punctuality standard. The High Court Tribunal found against the WG and asked them to publish the bus performance monitoring information on a regular basis as part of the WG publication scheme. To date the WG have not complied with the High Court request.

The Transport portfolio has now been passed to a newly created Climate Change Ministry which has a wide brief covering environment, energy, housing, planning and transport. It remains to be seen whether the new Minister will right the wrongs left by Ken Skates.

What eveidence do you have to state that the Free Weekends Travel was a failure. The free services were a fantastic opportunity for those unable to justify transportation costs to be able to visit other areas and spend within the local economy.

On the Western Coast, the routes have been a success with a strong number of passengers on the T2, T3 and T5. I know there has been some incidents onboard the services, it’s clear that these were in the minority.

In reference to the diversion of the services between Corwen and Bala. These services have been servicing the villages for years, and are not too much of an inconvenience for regular passengers. The diversion only costs approximately 10 minutes to the service compared to the previous T3 Express runs by GHA in the morning/evening. The cost to provide an alternative service for these villages would be greater than the costs in operating the current service as is.

Your comment mention the introduction of new TrawsCymru Services you mention the T10, i agree this one was a strange proposal however did not progress very far, in reference to the T15 this would have replaced over contracted services and rebranded as TrawsCymru, similar to the T12 replacing Powys bus X71 & X85. Or the T11 in Pembrokeshire replacing the 411 and 412. Many on this forum have also wished for the X51 from Rhyl to Wrexham to be upgraded to TrawsCymru since the days of GHA. Its true to say that TrawsCymru is now a well known brand across Wales and if it helps to safeprove these services then this should be commended

In reference to connections, Both the T2 & T3 have operating restrictions imposed upon them due to School & College requirements. Connections with other services, From your observations you may not have seen many changes however i can assure you people do connect at Dolgellau. In reference to Aberystwyth, its clear that there are issues with the T1, however this service has its own connections it has to meet e.g rail connections at Carmarthen, these timings restrictions has resulted in buses being forced to operate at these times, the costs in additional services to carry school/college pupils would be substansial and could have a detrimental effect on the profitability of commercially operated journeys.

 

[ChrisC]

They might, of course, be planning to tweak the train timetable to fit but haven't published that yet.

At the moment arrivals at Blaenau are 0832, 1134, 1437 and 1732. I can't really see any good reason for them being off by a couple of minutes like that when the Coast line is near enough clockface, so if they are going to genuinely combine it with a Traws bus in the other two hours (which would be a really, really good thing and form the best public transport service the corridor has ever had) they will probably want to regularise that to precisely every 3 hours, which could well mean pulling it a bit earlier meaning it will connect with those buses.

If both are TfW they could even, you know, wait for it, hold the bus if the train is late and vice versa. Now wouldn't that be shocking?

I still don’t understand why travel on all TrawsCambria /TrawsCymru buses is not officially valid using the various versions of the Explore Wales Pass.

On the Transport for Wales (TfW website there is the following statement:
Here is a list of the bus operators in Wales that will accept the 'Explore Wales Pass'
First Group
Cardiff Bus
Arriva Bus Wales
Stagecoach Bus

When I last used an Explore Wales Pass about 4 years ago I didn’t have any problems using it between Caernarfon and Porthmadog, but that was only shortly after the facility to travel on nearly all buses in Wales had been removed from the Explore Wales Pass. Whether it is still so readily accepted these days I don’t know.

 

[johntrawscymru]

“”What eveidence do you have to state that the Free Weekends Travel was a failure. the routes have been a success with a strong number of passengers on the T2, T3 and T5.””

Sorry the T5 route had a 0.6% decrease in passengers in 2018-2019. There was no increase due to Free Weekend Travel. The Welsh Government (WG) did not bother to falsify the data on services in West Wales and the T1 showed only a small 2.1% increase. The WG were only interested in falsifying the data on the T2/T3 North Wales services.

Sorry T2 and T3 data on passenger numbers has been fabricated by Welsh Government Officials. Please read the post above on 1st April 2021 . there is no 45% increase in passenger numbers due to Free Weekend Travel. That was a lie.
There is no WG analysis of Free Weekend Travel . There are Press Releases with claims of 100% , 200%, 300% increases based on a passenger figure for a specific service on a specific day compared with a similar date from the previous year . That kind of analysis is a complete nonsense.
The Free Weekend Travel scheme was announced by the then First Minister Carwyn Jones in March 2017. The objective was stated to be to encourage passengers to continue to use buses in mid week after a taster at weekends. Now read and examine the figures in the first Trawscymru Annual report fpr 2017-2018 and you will find there was no increase in mid week passenger numbers. Now read and examine the figures in the Trawscymru Annual reports for 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. Then explain to me how the passenger data was falsified, and where there is any analysis of how many passengers travelled on weekdays and at weekends. You will find no analysis whatsoever.


““diversion of the services between Corwen and Bala. These services have been servicing the villages for years. “”

Nearly 60 years I believe. That does not mean it is the correct option . A long distance double decker service, part of a National Network, should not be travelling 14 miles along a narrow B road to pick up very few passengers and those passengers should be serviced by Bwcabus to connect with the T3 in Bala or Corwen.


“”its clear that there are issues with the T1, however this service has its own connections it has to meet e.g rail connections at Carmarthen “”

You are correct The T1 should be connecting with the rail network at Carmarthen and the Trawscambria route was introduced when the rail link between Carmarthen and North West Wales was removed. However this strategic route is now broken because the T2 has to wait in Dolgellau for late running T3 services from Wrexham (with few passengers) and no longer connects with the T1 in Aberystwyth.

“”similar to the T12 replacing Powys bus X71 & X85. Or the T11 in Pembrokeshire replacing the 411 and 412. “”

These 2 services are perfect examples of the WG philosophy which is “no strategic evaluation of a National long distance network and in order to claim success in increasing Trawscymru passenger numbers steal a couple of existing services and rebrand them as Trawscymru.”
Both the T11 and T12 services are a joke and are not long distance services. The T11 goes from Haverfordwest to Fishguard via St Davids taking over an hour, when the same journey can be carried out on the T5 in a third of the time. The T12 between Wrexham and Machynleth takes over 3.5 hours and goes here there and everywhere in Mid Wales. Nobody in their right mind would use the T12 as a long distance service .

 

[Bletchleyite]

These 2 services are perfect examples of the WG philosophy which is “no strategic evaluation of a National long distance network and in order to claim success in increasing Trawscymru passenger numbers steal a couple of existing services and rebrand them as Trawscymru.”
Both the T11 and T12 services are a joke and are not long distance services. The T11 goes from Haverfordwest to Fishguard via St Davids taking over an hour, when the same journey can be carried out on the T5 in a third of the time. The T12 between Wrexham and Machynleth takes over 3.5 hours and goes here there and everywhere in Mid Wales. Nobody in their right mind would use the T12 as a long distance service .

But are they intended to be long distance services, or are they long stopping bus services that are run as one service for operational and connectional convenience with no real intention that anyone would use it as a through service? The erstwhile Peterborough to MK X4 was an example of that - I bet in an average week precisely 0 tickets were sold for the full journey. A bit like I can't imagine many people travel from Liverpool to Norwich on the through train service as it is about an hour quicker to go via London and often cheaper, too.

That said, it is my view that Traws should have been better integrated with the railway, as part of a single fares and timetable system. Wales has huge gaps in the railway, so plugging them in this way has much more going for it than in England.

 

[markymark2000]

Is it worth mentioning that the Welsh Govt is duplicating over COMMERCIAL bus services offering free travel as well which I believe is illegal (subsidising a service to compete against a fully commercial one). T2 covering over the Arriva buses Bangor - Caernarfon, T3 going over Arriva 5 Llangollen to Wrexham and now the T12 (which replaced services which never, ever ran to Wrexham) stealing passengers from the 2/2A from Oswestry to Wrexham.

It's not very good. The whole TrawsCymru isn't there to satisfy passengers, it's there as part of Welsh Government aims to renationalise buses and the easiest way to do it is by starting with tenders and slowly letting the surrounding network fail so they can take on more services. All about control, nothing to do with passengers or what is the right thing to do. There are/were talks of a fast Mold - Chester route, again would steal passengers off commercial routes.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is it worth mentioning that the Welsh Govt is duplicating over COMMERCIAL bus services offering free travel as well which I believe is illegal (subsidising a service to compete against a fully commercial one).

Not quite that simple. I believe there would be legal issues with putting on an identical service, but it doesn't need to be much different for it to be potentially justified.

If you have a route A-B-C, say, and A-B is commercial but the commercial operator won't run B-C, but there's considerable demand A-C, then it is perfectly valid to put on a tendered service that runs the full route A-C. You don't have to make people change, and the commercial operator does not have a right to insist that you pay them to extend to C (though this may of course sometimes be cheaper) nor that you don't carry A-B passengers.

Real world (non-Welsh, as I don't know one) example - MK Council traditionally had a tendered route CMK-Newport Pagnell-Olney even though commercial CMK-Newport Pagnell services have long been provided. This is perfectly allowed.