have a look at Carmarthenshire's timetables and then look at the format and style of the 40 timetable that's been published and you will see that the timetable is a Carmarthenshire publication.
Granted, the style looks similar, but there are a number of differences between the First Group T1 timetable and the current 40/40c timetable on Carmarthenshire council's website. For example, the council logo is not included on the T1 timetable and the service caption, effective date etc. are red text on white rather than white text on green. Also, the Carmarthenshire council timetable does not use the 24 hour clock, the T1 timetable does.
Seeing as though the original idea of WAG's involvement was to expand upon the original TrawsCambria service and that service was the 701 then yes a direct service between Aber and Cardiff has always been a part of the WAG's plans for TrawsCymru.
The 701 is a coach service though. While coaches did appear to be the plan for TrawsCymru initially WAG seem to have changed tack and are sticking with low-floor buses.
why can't both frequent and infrequent services be part of the same network?
I suppose there's no reason for that. My main point however was that express coaches and stop-anywhere buses, being two very different things, should be seperate brands.
Surely the major problems that have been encountered with the establishment of a TrawsCymru network has been the WAG's blind insistence in trying to make all services conform to a standard frequency no matter what the need and usage?
Have you an example of that? The three services we have solid details of so far (T1, T4 and T9) do not appear to conform to a standard frequency at all, ranging from the T9 at every 20mins to T4 at two-hour intervals. I would suggest a minimum frequency of every two or three hours as part of the brand ethos for a stop-anywhere bus network, but wouldn't specify a maximum frequency.
Surely you aren't advocating re-instating the railway line between Aber and Carmarthen? The route can hardly sustain a bus service apparently (hence the large sums of money being used to subsidise the service)
I rather sadly think that our OP is suggesting the reinstatement of the rail line.
I am (conditionally) in favor of a new Aberystwyth-Carmarthen rail line, but that isn't what I proposed above. Read carefully (I'll add some bold to help):
I would suggest the best improvment to public transport between Aberystwyth and Cardiff would probably be introducing express train services to slash the rail jouney time between Carmarthen and Cardiff, and have buses connecting with them at Carmarthen.
No rail lines needing to be built for that, just some extra rolling stock and train services, and ideally some linespeed improvements. That makes the journey from Carmarthen to Cardiff much faster (which would benifit Carmarthen and possibly Milford and Fishguard as well as passengers connecting off the bus from Aberystwyth).
If you mean running an express via Shrewsbury then you are forgetting that much of the line between aber and shrewsbury is single track and so is governed to a very low speed by law (for obvious safety reasons).
That wasn't what I was suggesting, it is much too indirect, but the single track doesn't limit the Aberystwyth-Shrewsbury trains to a very low speed (unless you call 80mph a very low speed).
Back on topic, I do welcome investment in public transport and I'd be interested in seeing what First do put out on that route, how ridership develops and what sort of numbers those late journeys will get. Not many is my guess on the latter!!
The question of vehicles already appears to have been answered, at least in part:
It looks like First Cymru's 67438 and 67439 (Swansea P&R Enviro300's) have been repainted into a unbranded TrawsCymru livery.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/95768318@N07/14368270966