It would be interesting to know how many electric bus routes/charging facilities could be provided across Wales with the £20 Million rail investment. If the T1 investment is anything to go by it should provide 10 new Trawscymru routes.
It surprises me that there is no bus link between Llandovery and Brecon: I had to do it by taxi once, which cost £40, in order to get a T4 from Brecon to Cardiff but I would have used the bus if there had been one.
A council-supported bus service (route 80) between Llandovery and Brecon was introduced about 20 years ago, but withdrawn about 2015 due to subsidy cuts by Powys Council. The A40 is no longer a strategic link for long-distance coach services and the only settlement currently without public transport that would be served is the now tiny village of Trecastle (population about 200).
Wheres the crying laughing emoji for this forum? You've got to be joking right?
It's well known that trains get much more passengers than buses and so the investment while higher for trains, is often preferred as it has much bigger economic benefits.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57392568
there should be a two-hourly service each way throughout a 12-hour operating day.
He also said the carriages should be modernised to cater for cyclists
"Walking and cycling are very important activities in Carmarthenshire and Powys. People come for the open air."
The logic appears to be that “trains get much more passengers than buses” therefore we should invest in trains that encourage people to make unnecessary journeys with their bikes whilst ignoring the rest of the population who want to simply travel from A to B in order to connect with other parts of the network or in order to work,visit relatives,hospitals, shops etc.
All I wish to point out is that £20 Million is sizeable chunk of cash which could be put to better use by expanding the Trawscymru Network so that more passengers are able to connect with both the existing Trawscymru Network and the mainline train network.
If the Heart of Wales Line is struggling to attract passengers I cannot see that the answer is to attract walkers and cyclists by putting on more services with bike storage facilities. The train passenger statistics for the Heart of Wales Line make interesting reading.
https://www.gov.wales/sites/default...l-station-usage-april-2018-march-2019-672.pdf
In 2018-2019 2.78 million passengers were carried of which 2.6 million were through Swansea or Llanelli stations . The footfall through the rest of the stations on the line is 180,000 . The next highest passenger numbers are Llandrindod (population 5,309) with 40,672 passengers which outstrips by a long way Ammanford (population 5,411) with 19,934. This would appear to suggest that (a) the bulk of the passengers are commuters through Swansea/Llanelli stations and that (b) the link between the train and the Trawscymru T4 at Llandrindod is successful in increasing train passenger numbers through Llandrindod station.
However the low footfall through the rest of the stations on the line of 180,000 does illustrate that providing 3 extra train services per day at a cost of £20 million would not provide massive increases in passenger numbers. The walkers could be provided for by a bus service interspersed between the rail services to provide more timed options throughout the day along with combined Trawscymru/train tickets. .
To put the objective of increasing the number of walkers on the train into context, the number using the Sugar Loaf train station (the station used mainly by trekkers and cyclists), in 2018-2019 was 708 . Not exactly a big number at 2 per day. As a cyclist myself I would not fancy dealing with a bike breakdown without the assurance of an accessible car to pick up the brokendown bike and carrying a broken bike to the nearest train station would not be an option..
How much would be charged for train transport for the bike and how many passenger spaces would be sacrificed for the bikes ?. The whole argument smacks of lack of research and lack of understanding of what passengers want. Passengers want to go from A to B and when they get to B have the option of onward travel if they need to. Whether this is by bus or train is irrelevent.
The suggestion of a Trawscymru service between Carmarthen and Llandridod to link the T1 and T4 and the Heart of Wales Mainline to Shrewsbury was aimed at illustrating that expanding the Trawscymru network is (a) a lot cheaper and (b) opens more travel options compared to increasing the number of train services on the Heart of Wales train line.
Based on the passenger figures for the Heart of Wales line there is a question mark over whether there is actually a requirement for extra train services at all. The publicity by Professor Cole does not provide a justification/Business case for extra train services.
A Trawscymru service between Carmarthen and Brecon would in my mind be more use than a Carmarthen to Llandridod service paralleling the rail line . A Carmarthen to Brecon Trawscymru service could link Carmarthen rail station with the Heart of Wales line , plus link the Trawscymru T1 service with the Trawscymru T4 (Cardiff or Newtown) and the T14 (Hereford/Cardiff) in Brecon . It would also allow walkers to have more timing choices and joint ticketing where the service did parallel the Heart of Wales train line.
There are plenty of other Trawscymru long distance options which could be considered with £20Million.
As for the T2/T3 situation in Dolgellau is made more infuriating by Lloyds and how they operate. This time is not generally spent on the bus stop but more the buses all go to the depot for bus or driver swaps.
Well Said. What you have to remember is that the Welsh Government (WG) have made sure that Lloyds do not have to rush off from Dolgellau towards Machynleth and Aberystwyth.
For years I persevered with the T2/T1 last service of the day through Dolgellau and through Aberystwyth. The normal situation was for the T2 to wait 10 minutes in Dolgellau for the T3 to arrive from Wrexham. No T3 arrives therefore the T2 waits another 5 minutes. The T3 may or may not turn up but the T2 would then more often than not visit the depot for a driver change, something that could have been done while the T2 was stood in Eldon Square for 15 minutes. The departure from Dolgellau almost always failed to meet the Traffic Commissioners requirement that it should be no more than 5 minutes beyond the advertised departure time. On 50% of occassions the T2 still connected with the T1 in Aberystwyth, which could have been improved by applying a 5 minute delayed departure of the T1 just like the T2 in Dolgellau. The Lloyds T2 drivers were brilliant in achieving 50% of connections despite the waits in Dolgellau. The WG maintained that the T2/T1 were not connecting services in Aberystwyth although they arrived and departed at the same time.
What has to also be remembered in this ridiculous scenario is that not only the link between the T2 and the T1 to Carmarthen in Aberystwyth was at stake but also the link to the London train in Machynleth..
The WG went one step further when they changed the timetable on 01/01/2020 to include an unneccessary 5 minute delay in Machynleth, (25 minutes after the driver change in Dolgellau/ 35 minutes drive from Aberystwyth), and a 5 minute detour round a housing estate on the edge of Aberystwyth so that the T2 arrived in Aberystwyth 10 minutes after the last T1 of the day to Carmarthen had departed.
These timetable changes are in the hands of a WG Official who chairs all of the individual Trawscymru Service Delivery Group Meetings. Lloyds simply bow to the WG wishes and provide a Trawscymru bus and a driver to operate the service which matches the connection requirements of the WG Trawscymru Service Delivery Group.
Lloyds are definitely not to blame.as connections on the Trawscymru network are the responsibility of the WG Trawscymru Service Delivery Group overseen by the WG Trawscymru Strategy Board.
Lloyds were actually instrumental in introducing a T2 connection with the T1C in Aberystwyth after the WG failed to build in a connection when the T1C first started..
The T2/T3/T1 saga simply illustrates that an integrated transport network is not on the WG agenda, nor is it likely to be in the future as responsibility is being passed down to a series of Regional Bodies.
