Trawscymru T10/T11/T12 bus routes in North East Wales not publicised or subject to consultation before being put out to tender

Dear Ben Lake/Ellin Jones,

I have just been made aware of the following new Trawscymru routes that have been put out for tender .

Trawscymru Service T10: Bangor – Betws y Coed – Corwen – Chirk – Oswestry

Trawscymru Service T11: Machynlleth – Newtown – Welshpool – Wrexham

Trawscymru Service T12: Machynlleth – Newtown – Montgomery – Welshpool – Wrexham.

It therefore appears that the Welsh Government have jumped the gun and ignored the Ken Skates statement on 23/01/2018 in the Welsh Assembly Plenary  “”It is my intention, Deputy Presiding Officer, to subject some of the emerging proposals and choices to a public consultation in the second half of this year. We are determined that, in the future, schemes coming forward will be robust, deliverable and based on a sound strategic imperative and economic analysis.””

Could you please therefore ask the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport  the following questions on my behalf as a Ceredigion resident.

(a) When will the review of the Aberystwyth to Wrexham Trawscymru route, which was recommended by the Winckler report and which was finally commissioned on 14/11/2017 (see attached letter) by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport (Ken Skates), be completed , reported on and available for public examination?

(b)  When will the Feasibilty Study/Review/Business Case, ( ie the justification document for the above T10/T11/T12 Trawscymru services), be reported on and available for public examination.?.

(c)  When will the Welsh Government Transport Strategy key action to improve reliability and journey times on the T2/T1 Bangor/Carmarthen route through Aberystwyth be acted upon ?

(d) When will the Welsh Government reverse the changes of 01/01/2018 to the T2 timetable in Aberystwyth,  which did nothing other than deliberately destroy connectivity in Aberystwyth ?  (The T2 Aberystwyth departure changed from 10.05 to 10.00 am reversing a 2016 decision by the previous Transport Minister, Edwina Hart, and the T2 arrival at 18.40 changed to 18.50 making it impossible to connect with the last T1 to Carmarthen departing at 18.40)

Yours Sincerely

John McTighe

Addendum 1

Posting on 24/06/2016 to the BusUKForum

Trawscymru Service T10: Bangor – Betws y Coed – Corwen – Chirk – Oswestry

Trawscymru Service T11: Machynlleth – Newtown – Welshpool – Wrexham Service

Trawscymru Service 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 South Clwyd 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 new 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 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 ?. Why can these passengers not use the existing T2/T3 route from Bangor to Wrexham and then use the train (13 minutes from Wrexham to Chirk) or the hourly Arriva bus to Oswestry?  Why do we need 2 long distance routes from Bangor to Llangollen (T2/T3 and the new T10 service ?. 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 T10  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 new 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 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.  I have also recently been informed that the Welsh Government now have yet another consultant on board ,Mark Barry,  Professor of Practice in Connectivity.  Connectivity is the appropriate subject and perhaps Mark Barry will be looking at Aberystwyth and wondering why there is no connectivity between T2 and T1 services.   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.    

Addendum 2

Ken Skates  statement  on 23/01/2018 in Plenary

“”The Welsh Government will put in place a framework for the delivery of transport services that can improve network quality, frequency, reliability and punctuality, and provide more integrated and reduced carbon public transport.””

Russell George question on 08/05/2018 in Plenary

“”You’ve outlined that Mark Barry is going to undertake a strategic outline programme case, and two cases are being proposed, for the north and the south. It would be useful to have some timelines on that for when those cases and reports will be reported to you and when you’ll be able to report back to Members. Will this happen before the consultation that you have outlined that will take place later this year? I was pleased to see that you made reference to the Cambrian line and mid Wales not being neglected, but I’d be interested to see if that does sit in your north Wales case or your south Wales case. It’s surely got to fit in one or the other. I’d also like to ask you, Cabinet, Secretary, how your plans dovetail with existing policy documents that the Welsh Government has already published. Can you also specifically outline how your ambitions will benefit Welsh commuters based in both urban and rural communities across Wales? Now, it’s my view that it is, of course, vital that we build an integrated transport system. I don’t think you mentioned at all plans for how rail will be integrated with bus services to ensure that improvements will result in benefits for passengers across Wales, so can you give some views on this? Finally, Cabinet Secretary, can you outline how the delivery of these proposals, or your ambitions, will be supported by the two new bodies that have been created to help drive forward the creation of new transport infrastructure in Wales? I don’t think you mentioned the national infrastructure commission for Wales in your statement, which I’m surprised about, and if that’s the case, perhaps you could just explain some rationale behind that. And with regard to Transport for Wales, I think at one point that you mentioned that Mark Barry will be working with your department and Transport for Wales, so I’m just keen to understand the relationships between Transport for Wales and your department and how they work together. And finally, does the national infrastructure commission for Wales have the resources and support that are required to deliver your ambition?””

Ken Skates answer to Russell George on 08/05/2018 in Plenary

“”Regarding mid Wales. Mid Wales is crucially important in connecting the whole of Wales, in ensuring that we deliver at the heart of ‘Prosperity for All’ a truly united and connected Wales. So, it will be essential that the Cambrian line is considered in all of the work that’s undertaken and that we go on working with partners across the border to develop cross-border transport links, both in terms of rail and bus services. It’s my expectation that the early work that will be completed by Professor Barry will be with me by July. I’ve already stated that it’s my intention to go out to consultation in the second half of this year, and so I would hope to have his early findings on my desk in the coming two to three months.

If you look at the programme for government, we have a united and connected Wales at the very heart of our desire to drive up prosperity.. I do believe that the Member is absolutely right in talking about the need to enhance integration of public transport services, particularly in rural areas. Although this statement today does not concern, necessarily, buses. It’s also important to point out that the success in recent times of the TrawsCymru network should not be underestimated. It’s a long-distance network, often connecting communities not served by rail services. It, along with reform of local bus services that will come through legislation and, hopefully, through Welsh Government and local authorities working with the sector, will deliver better integration, not just in terms of timetables, not just in terms of physical infrastructure and hubs, but also in terms of ticketing. That work is being taken forward in parallel with the work that Professor Barry is undertaking in identifying the early projects that require investment.

Longer term, the national infrastructure commission and the experts who will sit on that commission will have a role in influencing, informing and scrutinising any proposals from Welsh Government and Transport for Wales. In terms of Transport for Wales and the role that Mark Barry has in informing the work that Transport for Wales is doing, and where the Department for Transport is concerned, Professor Barry brings expertise that currently complements what Transport for Wales has to offer. It’s my view that Professor Barry is able to inform Transport for Wales in an objective way and inform the UK Government’s decisions in an objective way by offering us expert views, expert analysis and an evidence-based approach to the projects that should be prioritised in the early stages.”