Monitoring of Trawscymru bus service punctuality and reliability by Bus Compliance Officers

Monitoring of Trawscymru bus service punctuality and reliability by Bus Compliance Officers

Dear Barclay Davies,

I enjoyed my first and recent experience of using the T3 Trawscymru route between Dolgellau and Wrexham on 22/05/2018 to Wrexham and on 25/05/2018 from Wrexham to Dolgellau.

The Trawscymru T3 Wrexham to Barmouth service is a slow local bus service which takes frequent diversions from the main roads to service outlying villages and the route has not changed in the last 53 years since a bus was introduced in 1965 when the Ruabon to Barmouth railway was closed . The service is unreliable, is consistently late and most of the passengers travel between Wrexham and Llangollen.   Due to the inability of the T3 to meet the timetable, the Welsh Government have taken the inexplicable decision to sacrifice connectivity in Aberystwyth on the T2/T1 Carmarthen to Bangor service and hold back the T2 services (North and South) for 15 minutes in Dolgellau to wait for late T3 services from Wrexham . This 15 minute wait by the T2 services is often pointless as the T3 service from Wrexham is often more than 15 minutes late. The 15 minute delays to the T2  was contrary to the Welsh Government Transport Strategy (which contains a key action to improve reliability and journey times between Bangor and Carmarthen). This action was also contrary to the conclusions and recommendations of the Bevan Foundation Review of Trawscymru which recommended the T3 route should run between Wrexham and Aberystwyth .

The problem with the Wrexham to Barmouth route could be solved by employing a direct route between Wrexham and Llangollen on the A483/A5 as that part of the current T3 route is served by the Arriva No 5 service with 24 services per day in each direction. The direct route would save between 10 and 15 minutes in T3 journey time both into and out of Wrexham which would a) avoid the consistently late arrivals at Wrexham and Dolgellau  b) avoid the waits of 15 minutes currently imposed on the T2 (Bangor to Aberystwyth) services in Dolgellau to wait for the T3 from Wrexham and c) allow connectivity of the T2 and T1 services to be restored in Aberystwyth and therefore meet the published Welsh Transport Strategy.

The timings for the T3 service between Dolgellau and Wrexham are impossible to achieve, which is why the 15 minute connection times for the T2/T1 in Aberystwyth were moved to Dolgellau when the T3 Wrexham to Barmouth service was introduced.

The journey time as per the timetable for Dolgellau to Wrexham is 2 hours. Actual journey times in both cases (22/05/2018 and  25/05/2018)  to and from Wrexham was  2 hrs 10 minutes. On 22/05/2018 the T2 from Aberystwyth arrived on time in Dolgellau at 11.10.  On the journey from Dolgellau to Wrexham on 22/05/2018 the T3 left at 11.25 (5 minutes late) along with both T2 services . The  T3 service from Wrexham should have arrived in Dolgellau at 11.10 but had not arrived by 11.25 (more than 15 minutes late) and both the T2 services (to Bangor and to Aberystwyth) had therefore been held up unnecessarily for 15 minutes to wait for it.  (NB This was a repeat of my experiences in 2015/2016 going South through Dolgellau on the last T2 of the day where the T2 was held back to wait for the T3 which frequently never arrived or arrived late and transferred no passengers to the T2.  I now no longer use this T2 service and use the car as the arrival time in Aberystwyth has been changed from 18.40 to 18.50 by inserting an unneccessary 5 minute wait in Machynleth and a diversion through a small village/housing estate on the edge of Aberystwyth so that it is completely imossible to link with the last T1 departing at 18.40 for Carmarthen).  The T3 to Wrexham should have left earlier than 11.25 at 11.20 but the driver thought the double decker bus ii front of him was the T3 from Wrexham (because it had the Wrexham to Barmouth logo ) but it was in fact the T2 service waiting to go to Aberystwyth . The T3 to Wrexham driver thought he was waiting for one of the T2 services and woukl have normally set off at 11.20 when both T2 services had arrived in Dolgellau . On the journey from Dolgellau to Wrexham on 22/05/2018 the diversion between Bala and Corwen onto the B4407 picked up and dropped off no passengers and the bus was held up twice (reversed 100 yards to allow through a logging, articulated lorry and held up by an Ivor Williams articulated vehicle. This T3 service arrived 9 minutes late into Wrexham.

On the return journey from Wrexham to Dolgellau on 25/05/2018 the T3 should have departed at 11.00am. At 11.02 a double decker T3 bus arrived and parked up in the bus station. Another waiting passenger told me that this was the bus for the 12.00 departure and also told me that the T3 service was always late by anything up to 20 minutes. The single decker T3 service arrived at 11.07 , departed at 11.09 (9 minutes late) and arrived at 13.15 in Dolgellau (5 minutes late). This was achieved by some awesome driving and the fact that there were no hold ups of any kind.

On 10/08/2017 I wrote to Bus Users Cymru with questions regarding a report “” Evidence from Bus Users Cymru  to the National Assembly for Wales Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee””

In reply to those questions the following answers were supplied by Bus Users Cymru.

(a)  “”The following TrawsCymru services were monitored. T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6 and T9.   Reports of the punctuality monitoring were shared with the relevant operator and the TrawsCymru Network Manager.””

(b) “”Warning letters were also sent to the Operators where monitoring has found that their services were running below the standard of 95% punctuality and compliance. “”.

I would be grateful if you could provide me with the following information from your service monitoring and reporting on Trawscymru bus operations.

(1)   Provision of Bus Users Cymru punctuality and reliability reports.

Are the reports of punctuality monitoring shared with any other organisation in addition to “”the relevant operator and the TrawsCymru Network Manager.”” ?

(2)   Monitoring of the T3 Barmouth to Wrexham arrival in Wrexham.

In the periods November 2014 to March 2015, April 2015 to March 2016, April 2016 to March 2017, April 2017 to March 2018 could you please provide the number of T3 services monitored and the number of services that arrived at Wrexham no more than 5 minutes late

(3) Monitoring of the T3 Wrexham to Barmouth arrival in Barmouth

In the periods November 2014 to March 2015, April 2015 to March 2016, April 2016 to March 2017, April 2017 to March 2018 could you please provide the number of T3 services monitored and the number of services that arrived at Barmouth no more than 5 minutes late

(4) Monitoring of the T2 Bangor to Aberystwyth arrival in Aberystwyth

In the periods November 2014 to March 2015, April 2015 to March 2016, April 2016 to March 2017, April 2017 to March 2018 could you please provide the number of T2 services monitored and the number of services that arrived at Aberystwyth no more than 5 minutes late.

(5) Monitoring of the T2 Aberystwyth  to Bangor arrival in Bangor.

In the periods November 2014 to March 2015, April 2015 to March 2016, April 2016 to March 2017, April 2017 to March 2018 could you please provide the number of T2 services monitored and the number of services that arrived at Bangor no more than 5 minutes late.

(6) Monitoring of the T1 Aberystwyth  to Carmarthen arrival in Carmarthen (NB see addendum 1 )

In the periods November 2014 to March 2015, April 2015 to March 2016, April 2016 to March 2017, April 2017 to March 2018 could you please provide the number of T1 services monitored and the number of services that arrived at Carmarthen no more than 5 minutes late.

(7) Monitoring of the T1 Carmarthen to Aberystwyth  arrival in Aberystwyth

In the periods November 2014 to March 2015, April 2015 to March 2016, April 2016 to March 2017, April 2017 to March 2018 could you please provide the number of T1 services monitored and the number of services that arrived at Aberystwyth  no more than 5 minutes late.

(8) Monitoring of T2/T3 services into Dolgellau

In the  period November 2014 – March 2018 were any T2/T3 services monitored with respect to their arrival time in Dolgellau ?  If services were monitored how was the punctuality recorded as the delay in Dolgellau applied to these services is currently 15 minutes (10 minutes as per the timetable and 5 minutes as per a Quality Partnership Agreement to wait for late running services.   Does  “”no more than 5 minutes late””  mean 5 minutes after the timetabled arrival time or does it mean 5 minutes after the timetabled departure time.?  If any of the above services were monitored could you please provide the results of the monitoring.

(9) Warning Letters

Are  copies of warning letters sent to the Trawscymru Network Manager and the Traffic Commissioner and to any other organisations ?.

Were any warning letters issued in the above period November 2014 – March 2018 to the operators of any of the above services where monitoring had found that their services were running below the standard of 95% punctuality and compliance.  If warning letters were issued could you please say on which dates and which services were issued with warning letters .

(9) Trawscymru Services arriving more than 5 minutes late.

Where services arrive more than 5 minutes late is the precise level of lateness recorded by Bus Compliance Officers.?

Yours Sincerely,

Dr John McTighe

Addendum 1    Arrival times of the T1 Aberystwyth to Carmarthen service at Carmarthen railway station between July 2016 and now.

In 2016 I requested that the T1 departure in Aberystwyth be changed from 18.40 to 18.45 to allow connection with the T2 arrival from Bangor at 18.40 or alternatively the 18.40 T1 departure time to be delayed by upto 5 minutes to wait for the 18.40  T2 arrival under a Quality Partnership Agreement in the same way as the T2 services delayed their departures  in Dolgellau to wait for late T3 services from Wrexham.  This change would have resulted in 5 minutes of connection time of the T1 with the train in Carmarthen. The Trawscymru Network Manager refused to take either of these actions because he said the T1 needed 10 minutes to connect with the last train to Cardiff.   The Trawscymru Network Manager refused to examine T1 arrival times at Carmarthen railway station in order to assess whether it was possible to change the T1 departure time in Aberystwyth from 18.40 to 18.45 .

I have therefore conducted my own investigation on  17 journeys from llanrhystud to Carmarthen using the T1 service (9.40 or 10.40 departures from Aberystwyth) between July 2016 and now with the following results

1 T1 service arrived Carmarthen railway station 2 mins early

3 T1 services arrived Carmarthen railway station 1 min early

2 T1 services arrived Carmarthen railway station on time

6 T1 services arrived Carmarthen railway station 1 minute late

3 T1 services arrived Carmarthen railway station 2 minutes late

1 T1 service arrived Carmarthen railway station 4 minutes late (service was 9 minutes late when it left Llanrhystud)

1 T1 service arrived Carmarthen railway station 13  minutes late (delay between Pencader and Carmarthen – driver apologised due to low loader delivery for a wind farm)

The above shows that all T1 services arrive at Carmarthen railway station well within 5 minutes of the published arrival time . The only exception to this is where an unexpected event occurs such as an RTC,  bus breakdown or as in the case of the service 13 minutes late the road blocked by escort vehicles/police. Even where a bus is late at the start of a journey the timetable should be designed to allow the service to make up time on the rest of the journey and this was the case with the service that arrived 9 minutes late in llanrhystud but made up 5 minutes of time on the rest of the journey and arrived only 4 minutes late at Carmarthen railway station .  The above timings were on journeys in the morning during a working day when traffic on the roads would be high. The T1 journey which I asked to be changed (departure in Aberystwyth to be changed from 18.40 to 18.45) is one that is running in the evening when traffic is light, no road maintenance is taking place and hold ups would be minimal.  Based on the above evidence there was no basis for the Trawscymru Network Manager to refuse to make the change from 18.40 to 18.45 and he should have been able to quickly do a similar investigation to the one above on the 18.40 Aberystwyth T1 departure.