Trawscymru – good news or not . Tenders for Trawscymru T11/T12 from Wrexham to Machynleth

Dear Madam,

On 15^th May you published a letter “”AM must campaign for better connectivity“” in which I suggested Elin Jones could direct her efforts to obtaining better bus service coverage on the Aberystwyth to Cardiff route , ie a return to two T1C services per day to Cardiff, improved connectivity on the T2/T1 route through Aberystwyth, and a TrawsCymru route from Aberystwyth to Wrexham.

On 23/01/2018 in the Welsh Assembly Plenary Ken Skates , Minister for Transport made a statement “”It is my intention 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.””.

With respect to the Trawscymru bus network this consultation has not happened and tenders have been put out for 3 new Trawscymru services T10: Bangor – Betws y Coed – Corwen – Chirk – Oswestry,  T11: Machynlleth – Newtown – Welshpool – Wrexham,  T12: Machynlleth – Newtown – Montgomery – Welshpool – Wrexham.  These 3 new routes have been introduced with no documents available to the public on why these routes have been chosen.  There has been no “sound strategic imperative and economic analysis”.  All 3 routes are beneficial to the AM constituents of Ken Skates , Minister for Transport .in Wrexham and South Clwyd.

This is good news of a kind with a T11/T12 route from Wrexham to Machynleth in Powys, but the problems in Aberystwyth remain unaddressed.  I have therefore written to both Ben Lake,MP and Elin Jones, AM to request that they ask Ken Skates , Minister for Transport, the following questions:-

(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 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 absolutely impossible to connect with the last T1 to Carmarthen departing at 18.40)

Yours etc,

Dr John McTighe, Llanrhystud.