Trawscymru New route in North Wales and Review of Trawscymru T3 route from Wrexham to Aberystwyth

copies   Welsh MPs at Westminster,  Welsh Assembly Members and

Ceredigion Council members

 

Information Commissioner Case Reference Number FS50734061 ATISN 12099 – TrawsCymru – Internal Review

 

Dear Sue Moffatt,

 

Thank you for your Welsh Labour Government internal review which I shall be referring as a complaint to the Information Commissioner.

 

I am also sending this reply to the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure. The contributions made by Simon Jones, Jason Thomas and yourself have not been carried out in an objective way and the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure need to be aware of this and respond to correct the injustices in relation to the Trawscymru T2/T1 and T3 routes…  The “vexatious” ploy is being used by the Welsh Government to avoid answering difficult questions that would reveal

neglect of connecting Trawscymru services through Aberystwyth.   My

requests have not been “vexatious” and if anyone has been guilty of “vexatious” behaviour it is Welsh Government officials.

 

ATISN 12099 is titled “A new Trawscymru service in North Wales”. The request was sent on 18/02/2018 and was prompted by the fact that a “high level” review of a T3 route from Wrexham to Aberystwyth promised on 14/11/2017 had not been carried out and the revelation by Conwy Council on 16/02/2018 that the Welsh Government were considering a route between Chirk and Bangor via Wrexham.

 

Your review does not mention this new route nor does it mention the T3 Wrexham to Aberystwyth route. The review simply chronicles a selection of my early 2016 correspondence on T2/T1 connectivity in Aberystwyth .

You then imply all my subsequent correspondence on different issues is related to this one topic in an attempt to justify “vexatious”

behaviour. and therefore provide a reason for the Welsh Government to not answer legitimate questions, which are of interest to the travelling public

 

In reply to your review I shall firstly describe the history of my complaints as I believe you have not been told the full picture by the Welsh Government officials you have interviewed and you have certainly not asked me for any contribution to your review.  Secondly I shall comment in detail on the points you have made in your review.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Dr John Mctighe

 

HISTORY OF MY COMPLAINTS

 

The Trawscymru T2/T1 Bangor to Carmarthen route was in existence BEFORE the T3 (Wrexham to Barmouth)  and the T5 (Aberystwyth to Cardigan)

routes were introduced.   The Welsh Government Transport strategy, which

was produced in 2008 and revised in 2013, clearly states an objective to improve reliability and journey times on the strategic North/South

Bangor to Carmarthen route..   The T2/T1 Bangor to Carmarthen route is

133 miles long and because of its length should have connections in Aberystwyth of 15 minutes between T2 and T1 and similar connectivity going North between T1 and T2. .  The Bangor to Carmarthen route was considered to be strategic because of its length, because it connected North and South Wales where no other form of transport existed and because in both Bangor and Carmarthen it linked into the rail network.

In Carmarthen the bus stops 10 yards away from the station platform..

Before the T3 service was introduced in 2014 the Welsh Government commissioned an independent review of Trawscymru by The Bevan Foundation .  This review was published in 2013 and concluded that Wrexham to Barmouth was not a strategic route and recommended a feasibility study on routing the service between Wrexham and Aberystwyth , probably via

Welshpool and Newtown.   A year after the Bevan Foundation review was

published, the T3 route was introduced in late 2014 from Wrexham to Barmouth with 15 minute connection times for the T2 to wait in Dolgellau

for the T3 service from Wrexham..   The 15 minutes of connectivity in

Aberystwyth for the T2/T1 was transferred to Dolgellau to allow the T2 to wait for the T3 from Wrexham and this resulted in connectivity

between T2 and T1 in Aberystwyth being destroyed.   The feasibility

study on a Wrexham to Aberystwyth route was not carried out.  The T3 route is 57 miles long, 48 miles of which is between Wrexham and Dolgellau and 30 miles of which is through the AM constituency of the

Minister responsible for Transport (Ken Skates) in South Clwyd   The T3

route links Wrexham with Barmouth which is a non strategic location by the sea with no onward rail link, no major population, no hospital, no University and no commercial facilities, unlike the destination of

Aberystwyth which was proposed by the Bevan Foundation review.   I knew

very few of these facts when I first made a complaint in January 2016.

 

My complaint in early 2016 related to, as you say in your review, firstly the 10.00 am Trawscymru T2 departure from Aberystwyth to Bangor and secondly the 18.40 Trawscymru T2 arrival from Bangor combined with the 18.40 T1 departure from Aberystwyth to Carmarthen.  Both of these services I used on a weekly basis to travel North in the morning and back in the evening.  A key feature of my complaint regarding the 18.40

T2/T1 connection scenario in Aberystwyth was the fact that whilst travelling from the North to visit Cardiff on the T2/T1 route I had missed the 18.40 T1 connection in Aberystwyth, which connects with the last train to Cardiff and therefore had to postpone the journey to the following day..  You failed to mention in your review a third complaint regarding 10 minute delayed departures (beyond the published departure

time) of the T2 service in Dolgellau which were being employed to wait for late running T3 services from Wrexham.

 

With respect to the first complaint, the 10.00 am Trawscymru T2 departure from Aberystwyth to Bangor was setting off too early and had to stop in a lay-by for 5 minutes, 3 miles outside Aberystwyth, to get back on timetable for the first stop in the village of Bow Street.

David Hall (Trawscymru Network Manager) refused to change the departure time in Aberystwyth from 10.00am to 10.05am and insisted the lay-by stop was retained because work on a new bridge in Machynleth would start within a few months..  The T2 departure from Aberystwyth was eventually changed in May 2016 to 10.05 am by directive of the previous Transport Minister (Edwina Hart)  to allow better connectivity with the Northbound

T5 arriving at 9.57.  The review is not correct in saying this has been addressed, because the current Welsh Transport Minister (Ken Skates) has allowed Edwina Hart’s directive to be reversed and on 15th January

2018 the T2 departure time was changed back to 10.00am leaving the T5 only 3 minutes to connect with the T2.  .

 

With respect to the second complaint the 18.40 Trawscymru T2 arrival from Bangor combined with the 18.40 T1 departure from Aberystwyth to Carmarthen inevitably resulted in missed connections in Aberystwyth with a wait of over 1 hour for the next bus.  These are the last T2 and T1 services of the day and failure to make the connection means that passengers on the T2 will miss the last train to Cardiff / London in

Carmarthen .   David Hall (Trawscymru Network Manager) refused to change

the Aberystwyth T1 departure time despite the fact that Carmarthenshire Council, (who managed the T1 contract), said they had not objected to a change to 18.45.

 

With respect to the third complaint, which was not mentioned in the review, a T2 journey back to Aberystwyth was held back in Dolgellau by 7 minutes beyond its published departure time.  I therefore made a Freedom of Information request to Gwynedd Council, who revealed that T2 departures to Aberystwyth from Dolgellau were being delayed by up to 10 minutes beyond their departure time under a Quality Partnership

agreement.   Consultation of the Road Traffic Act revealed that a 10

minute delay was illegal and following my complaint to the Road Traffic Commissioner, Trawscymru were forced in July 2017 by the Road Traffic Commissioner to reduce delayed T2 departures in Dolgellau from 10 minutes to 5 minutes.  This helped the T2 to connect with the T1 at 18.40 in Aberystwyth but the connection was still not fully reliable, although it could have been made reliable if a 5 minute wait under a Quality Partnership agreement had been introduced for the T1 in Aberystwyth, in line with the procedure employed for the T2 in Dolgellaui.  However this directive by the Road Traffic Commissioner was circumvented on 15th January 2018 by Trawscymru increasing the planned wait time in Dolgellau (time between arrival and departure) for all T2 services from 5 minutes to 10 minutes so that the total T2 wait time in Dolgellau could return to the 15 minutes that existed before the intervention of the Traffic Commissioner.  Also on 15th January 2018 Trawscymru made absolutely sure that the 18.40 T2/T1 connection in Aberystwyth could not be possible by increasing the T2 arrival time in Aberystwyth from 18.40 to 18.50. The 18.50 arrival time was achieved by an unnecessary stop in Machynleth near Aberystwyth for 5 minutes and an unnecessary 5 minute diversion off the A487 on the edge of Aberystwyth through the village of Comins Coch and through the Waunfawr Housing estate in Aberystwyth.

 

Over the past 2 years , because of the lack of honest responses from Welsh Government officials , I have been forced into directing requests for information to County Councils (Wrexham Borough Council, Flintshire Council, Denbighshire Council, Conwy Council, Powys Council, Ceredigion Council and Carmarthenshire Council)  and bus service providers (First Cymru and Lloyds of Machynleth).  I have also examined all the documentation I could find on the Trawscymru bus network including the published Welsh Government Transport Strategy, the Bevan Foundation Independent review of the Trawscymru network and the road Traffic Act.

This has inevitably led to a lengthy learning curve, where information received led to further questions.  The Welsh Government tactic of choosing to completely ignore questions also necessitated repeated requests to the Welsh Government.  The Welsh Government has also always used the full 20 days and more to reply to Freedom of Information requests when the Information Commissioner states that replies should be provided promptly and 20 days should be a stop gap. The Welsh government have also been dishonest in their response to Freedom of Information requests. The tactic employed by Sheena Hague (Deputy Director of

Transport) and David Hall (Trawscymru Network Manager)  in 2016 was to completely alter the text of a Freedom of Information request , which then allowed them to direct my questions away from the Welsh Government to Carmarthenshire Council.  All this behaviour by officials has meant I have had to make frequent referrals of the Welsh Government to the Information Commissioner.

 

Inevitably, over 2 years, there have also been further changes to Trawscymru services, which have prompted further correspondence and I am currently in the process of formulating a complaint regarding the Trawscymru T1S service from Aberystwyth to Cardiff, (recently introduced on 16th April 2018) , which no doubt the Welsh Government will consider to be a “vexatious” request. .

 

Examination of the history of the Trawscymru network was revealing.

Gwynedd Council provided the original T2 departure times in Dolgellau for the service to Aberystwyth prior to the introduction of the T3 Wrexham to Barmouth Service. The T2 service would have arrived in Aberystwyth with 15 minutes to connect with the T1 18.40 departure to Carmarthen.  It became very obvious then that the root cause of the lack of connectivity on all T2/T1 services in Aberystwyth was the

introduction of the T3 Wrexham to Barmouth service.   I therefore looked

at the Welsh Government Transport strategy and the Bevan Foundation review of Trawscymru.

 

The Welsh Government Transport strategy, which was produced in 2008 and revised in 2013, clearly states an objective to improve reliability and journey times on the strategic North/South Bangor to Carmarthen (T2/T1)

route.   Contrary to this objective the Welsh Labour Government

introduced the T3 route from Wrexham to Bangor in 2014 and employed up to 15 minute delays to the T2 service to wait for T3 services from Wrexham.  This led to loss of connectivity between T2 and T1 services in Aberystwyth and the perfect example was the last service of the day from Bangor which arrived in Aberystwyth at 18.40 and therefore had difficulty in connecting with the 18.40 T1 departure to Carmarthen.

 

Before the T3 service was introduced in 2014 the Welsh Government commissioned an independent review of Trawscymru by the Bevan Foundation. This review covered the views of stakeholders across Wales and was published in 2013 a year before the introduction of the T3. The review concluded that Wrexham to Barmouth was not a strategic route and recommended a feasibility study on routing the service between Wrexham and Aberystwyth, probably via Welshpool and Newtown,. The Wrexham to Aberystwyth route would have avoided the 15 minute delays to the T2 service in Dolgellau and would have maintained T2/T1 connectivity North and South in Aberystwyth.  It would also have opened up bus transport links between North-East Wales and South Wales by connections of the T3 in Aberystwyth to the T1 (to Carmarthen) and the T5 (to Cardigan / Fishguard / Haverfordwest).  A year after The Bevan Foundation review was published, the T3 route was introduced from Wrexham to Barmouth with

15 minute connection times for the T2 in Dolgellau to wait for the T3 from Wrexham, connectivity between T2 and T1 in Aberystwyth was destroyed and the feasibility study on a  Wrexham to Aberystwyth route was not carried out.

 

In September 2017 I wrote to six County Councils regarding their involvement in discussions on a T3 route from Wrexham to Aberystwyth and

new Trawscymru routes in North Wales.   Two County Councils refused to

reply (Conwy Council the home Council of David Hall, the Trawscymru Network Manager and Flintshire Council the home Council of Ken Skates, the Minister responsible for Transport).  Conwy and Flintshire Councils were referred to the Information Commissioner and only replied in February 2018 when the Information Commissioner issued Decision Notices

threatening the possibility of High Court action.    Gwynedd, Powys and

Ceredigion Council replied promptly to the Information requests and confirmed they had not been involved in discussions on a Wrexham to

Aberystwyth route.   David Hall (Trawscymru Network Manager) also

admitted that a feasibility study on a Wrexham to Aberystwyth route had not been carried out . However he later changed his mind and claimed Sheena Hague (Deputy Director of Transport)  had been involved in discussions on a Wrexham to Aberystwyth route.  Simon Jones (Director for Transport) has refused to allow Sheena Hague to answer questions on the Wrexham to Aberystwyth route as he has decided the questions are “vexatious”.  There is also no Welsh Government documentation available

on these discussions on a Wrexham to Aberystwyth route     I therefore

asked the Ceredigion Councillor responsible for Transport, Alun Williams, to write to Ken Skates regarding a T3 Wrexham to Aberystwyth route.  On 14/11/2017 Ken Skates wrote to Alun Williams and I received a

copy of that letter which was inaccurate in 2 respects.   Firstly Ken

Skates said the route had been examined before the T3 was introduced and a decision had been taken to not pursue the route.  This was clearly incorrect based on the evidence of Gwynedd, Powys and Ceredigion Councils and the first statement by David Hall.. Ken Skates went on to say that he had commissioned a “high level” review into the Bevan Foundation review “SUGGESTION” that “SOME Trawscymru services should be routed from Wrexham to Aberystwyth AS WELL AS to Barmouth”.

This statement was also incorrect as the Bevan Foundation review made a RECOMMENDATION not a “suggestion” and the recommendation was to route the T3 from Wrexham to Aberystwyth RATHER THAN Barmouth.  Ken Skates said Ceredigion Council would be involved in the “high level”

review.  I now know that one week later the Trawscymru network manager was leading discussions with North Wales Councils on a new Trawscymru route between Chirk and Bangor via Wrexham. The subject of a Wrexham to Aberystwyth route was not covered and Ceredigion Council were not asked

to attend this meeting.   Ceredigion Council have also recently revealed

that on 07/12/2017 the Trawscymru manager was not conducting a “high level” review of a T3 route from Wrexham to Aberystwyth, but was formalising an increase in the number of T3 services on the existing route between Wrexham and Barmouth.  The introduction of these new T3

services was accompanied by changes to the T2 timetable.   On 15/01/2018

I first became aware that the Trawscymru Network Manager had made changes to the T2 service, when I tried to catch the 10.05 T2 to find the bus had left at 10.00am . The T2 timetable had been changed without any warning and the planned wait time in Dolgellau (time between arrival and departure) for all T2 services had been increased from 5 minutes to

10 minutes.   Some of these T2 changes were detrimental to T2/T1

connectivity in Aberystwyth and it was also clearly obvious that the “high level” review of a T3 route from Wrexham to Aberystwyth, which Ken Skates asked his officials to commission in November 2017 was not being carried out.  Ceredigion Council have confirmed on 20/04/2018 that they have not been involved in a “high level” review of a T3 route from Wrexham to Aberystwyth.

 

Following the T3 and T2 service changes of 15/01/2018, I  placed further Freedom of Information requests to the Welsh Government on the subject of  “”The T3 from Wrexham to Aberystwyth instead of Wrexham to Barmouth”” and “”Trawscymru T2 timetable changes of 15th January 2018.””.  I also requested release of email correspondence on both these subjects.

 

On 16/02/2018 I finally received a reply from Conwy County Council to my request made in September 2017.  Conwy Council had been forced to reply by the Information Commissioner issuing a Decision Notice.  Conwy Council stated that they had been involved in discussions on a new Trawscymru route in North Wales and the route was currently under consideration.  This route was later confirmed to be between Chirk and Bangor via Wrexham.

 

On 18/02/2018 I placed a further Freedom of Information request to the Welsh Government titled “”Ken Skates ignores Welsh Transport Strategy / Bevan Review of Trawscymru and plans new Trawscymru route in North Wales. This request was assigned by the Welsh Government as ATISN

12099 and is the subject of this Welsh Government review which was forwarded to me on 01/05/2018 and which I am replying to now.

 

On the following day (19/02/2018) Simon Jones (Director of Transport in Ken Skates Department) wrote to me to say that ATISN 11954, 12006 and 12050 were “vexatious”.  ATISN 11954 was due to be replied to on 21/02/2018.  I requested an internal review of this decision which was carried out on 21/03/2018 by Jason Thomas. The review consisted of 1 page with no investigation or evidence and simply stated “”I have reviewed the correspondence and do not uphold your request.””

 

COMMENTS ON THE POINTS MADE IN THE WELSH GOVERNMENT REVIEW OF ATISN 2099 DATED 01/05/2018

 

COMMENT 1.  ATISN 12099 is titled “A new Trawscymru service in North Wales”.  The review completely ignores this subject and concentrates on my original complaint of January 2016.  The review covers in detail Request One and Two made in January 2016 . This is irrelevant to this

request    The review therefore lacks objectivity and does not explain

why this request is considered “vexatious”.

 

COMMENT 2 In your review you state that “”Request One of January

2016 has been accommodated to retime the T2 service from 10.00am to

10.05 to allow better connectivity with Trawscymru services from the South””.. This again is irrelevant to ATISN 12099 but the statement

is also incorrect.   If the review had concentrated on looking at the

questions raised in the “vexatious” requests the reviewer would have realised that this is incorrect . The T2 departure from Aberystwyth was changed in May 2016 from 10.00am to 10.05 am by the previous Transport Minister (Edwina Hart)  and the current Welsh Transport Minister (Ken

Skates) has allowed Edwina Hart’s directive to be reversed.  On 15th January 2018 the T2 departure time was changed back to 10.00am leaving the T5 only 3 minutes to connect with the T2.

 

COMMENT 3 The review also covers in detail Request Two of January 2016 to retime the T2/T1 buses arriving and departing in Aberystwyth at 18.40. This again is irrelevant to ATISN 12099. The review then goes on to say that since then I have submitted over a 100 emails to named officials , Ministers, Assembly Members, MPs ,the Welsh Government and Local Authorities. The list of email recipients is also irrelevant to ATISN 12099 and the number of emails is incorrect together with the inference they all refer to the 18.40 scenario in Aberystwyth  .  If the Welsh Government had been honest and open in their responses and taken some action I would not have had to take the approach of writing to other organisations. . The review then goes on to explain why the 18.40 time in Aberystwyth cannot be changed.and quotes 2 reasons – firstly the necessity for the 18.40 service.to reach Carmarthen (the T1 has 10 minutes connection time to the train ) and secondly an 18 month tree felling program on the A487..  In  2016 the reason was quoted as “a T5 connection to the T1 in Aberaeron” . This was not true and following referral of David Hall (the Trawscymru Network Manager) to the Information Commissioner, the reason was changed to “Contractual and Operational reasons”, the operational reason being the train connection in Carmarthen.  Carmarthenshire Council,who manage the T2 service contract, confirmed in 2016 that there was no “Contractual reason” to not retime the 18.40 T1 departure in Aberystwyth. .  The “.Contractual reason” has now been dropped and replaced by the “tree felling program” . The tree felling program is on the A487 North of Machynleth  and was announced in February 2018 and therefore was irrelevant to the situation with the T1 service when I complained in 2016.

 

COMMENT 4 The review mentions that in January 2017 and October 2017 Simon Jones (Director of Transport) wrote to me and on both occasions stated that the Welsh Government would not be responding to any further correspondence. This typifies the Welsh Government response to the questions I have raised but again is irrelevant to ATISN 12099.

 

COMMENT 5 The review states “Welsh Government officials offered to meet in August 2016 and subsequent offers to meet at public consultation

events have been declined.”.   This is both not true and irrelevant to

the review of  ATISN 12099.  On 31/07/2016 I replied to Ken Skates offer saying “”Thank you for your letter of 27th July offering  a meeting with the Cabinet Minister’s Senior Officials.  Before I would take part in any meeting I would wish to have recorded before the meeting the facts relating to the T2/T1 service and whether Mr Hall agrees or disagrees with these facts. This could be used as a basis for any discussions at a meeting””.  This reply was ignored.

 

The review makes an offer _to  ”“meet with Sheena Hague, Director of Infrastructure Delivery and  the Trawscymru Network Manager in order for your views to be fed into the review process  which will be reported at

the end of May 2018””.   _Unlike July 2017 I wish to decline this

offer for 4 reasons. .

 

(1) Firstly Sheena Hague is the official who completely altered the text of my Freedom of Information in 2016 regarding the “Contractual reason” for not amending the T1 departure time from 18.40 to 18.45 and has also recently refused to answer the questions on a T3 route from Wrexham to Aberystwyth in ATISN 12050 , (sent on  02/02/2018),. and which are said to be “vexatious”.  There would be no point in meeting with someone who will not answer a question.

 

(2) Secondly the Trawscymru Network Manager is the official who has over a period of 2 years lied repeatedly in order to not provide connecting Trawscymru services and has on 15/01/2018 created yet more problems with

T2/T1 service connectivity in Aberystwyth.  The Trawscymru Network Manager is based in Llandudno, North Wales and has a preference for improving transport links in North Wales at the expense of West Wales.

 

(3) Thirdly my views have been made clear to the Welsh Government over the past 2 years and the “vexatious”.decision illustrates that the Welsh Government have no intention of listening to my views and a meeting will serve no purpose.  For the record my views are that

 

1. a) In 2014 the T2/T1 Bangor to Carmarthen route was a functional strategic 133 mile long service with 15 minutes connectivity in Aberystwyth and linking to the rail network in Bangor and Carmarthen.

 

1. b) .In late 2014 the Welsh Government introduced the 58 mile long T3 route from Wrexham to Barmouth and transferred the 15 minutes of T2 connectivity from Aberystwyth to Dolgellau so that the T2 services in both directions could wait in Dolgellau for the T3 service from Wrexham.

 

 

1. c) the decision to move the 15 minutes of connectivity from Aberystwyth to Dolgellau resulted in loss of connectivity between the T2 and the T1 in Aberystwyth. The Trawscymru website no longer records that T2/T1 services connect in Aberystwyth. The Trawscymru website does record that T1/T5 services connect in Aberaeron and that T2/T3 services connect in Dolgellau.  The T2/T1 route, because of lack of connectivity in Aberystwyth, is now completely dysfunctional .

 

1. d) The 15 minute delays to the T2 in Dolgellau contravene the published Welsh Government Transport Strategy to improve journey times on the

T2/T1 route.  The 15 minute delays to the T2 also contravene the conclusion and recommendation of the Bevan Foundation review ,which concluded that the 133 mile T2/T1 was strategically more important than the 58 mile T3 route.and recommended that the T3 route should run from Wrexham to Aberystwyth instead of Wrexham . This would have avoided the delays to the T2 in Dolgellau and would restore connectivity between T2

and T1 in Aberystwyth.   A Wrexham to Aberystwyth route would have

improved Transport links in Mid Wales and between North East Wales and South Wales.,

 

(4) Fourthly a decision on the Wrexham to Aberystwyth route has already been made and will be reported at the end of May . A meeting to discuss this would be a waste of my time.  The “high level “ review of the Wrexham to Aberystwyth route commissioned by Ken Skates on 14/11/2017 has not taken place and will not be done before the end of May 2018 .

Instead of reviewing the T3 Wrexham to Aberystwyth route the Trawscymru Network Manager has been busy introducing extra services to the T3 Wrexham to Bangor route , discussing a new route between Chirk and Bangor , and introducing further delays to T2 in Dolgellau to further destroy T2/T1 connectivity in Aberystwyth.

 

COMMENT 6 The review gives details of why ATISN12099 is “vexatious”

and quotes Abusive/aggressive language, Personal grudges, ,Unfounded accusations., Intransigence, Unreasonable persistence Frequent or overlapping requests.

 

I have made complaints about poor behaviour of the Transport Minister.s officials to the Transport Minister, which the Transport Minister treated as a Freedom of Information Request and passed down for reply to

the same officials I had complained about.   . I have made accusations

against Sheena Hague and David Hall for altering the text of freedom of Information requests . I have made accusations against David Hall of lying in response to Freedom of Information requests.  I have accused the Transport Minister , Ken Skates , of making an incorrect statement to the Welsh Assembly when he said the “”Trawscymru Network was based on the recommendations of Bevan Foundation Review” when the only recommendation was a T3 route from Wrexham to Aberystwyth instead of Barmouth.

 

These accusations have been supplied to the First Minister with full documentation including the dates and text from emails, together with evidence supplied by other parties.  The First Minister has chosen to disregard the complaints that I made to him and used Simon Jones to provide the same reply quoted in this review ie “any further correspondence received will not be acknowledged and will be filed “.

 

These are not unfounded accusations, there is no personal grudge or abusive, aggressive language but there is persistence because of the injustice in the way connection of Trawscymru services through Aberystwyth is being completely disregarded on a strategic North/South

T2/T1 route mainly for the benefit of one group of passengers largely from the AM constituency of South Clwyd travelling on the T3 from Wrexham to Dolgellau.  The Welsh Government appear to believe that their Minister’s and officials are allowed to ignore the Welsh Government Transport strategy, ignore review recommendations over a period of 5 years, alter the text of Freedom of Information requests, refuse to answer questions and lie in pursuing their own agenda .

 

COMMENT 7 The review comments that an original Review by Jason Thomas has been examined. This review did not cover ATISN 12099  The Jason Thomas review covered.11854, 12006, and 12050 and was a totally inadequate investigation which simply said  “”I have reviewed the correspondence and do not uphold your request.””

 

COMMENT 8 THE REVIEW GOES INTO GREAT DETAIL ON TIMINGS OF TRAWSCYMRU

T1/T2/T5 SERVICES THROUGH LLANRHYSTUD AND TRAIN TIMES BETWEEN ABERYSTWYTH AND PORTHMADOG. THIS IS TOTALLY IRRELEVANT TO ATISN 12099 (A NEW TRAWSCYMRU SERVICE IN NORTH WALES).  IT IS ALSO IRRELEVANT TO THE OTHER SUBJECTS THAT I HAVE ASKED THE WELSH GOVERNMENT ABOUT IE A T3 ROUTE FROM WREXHAM TO ABERYSTWYTH AND T2/T1 CONNECTIVITY IN ABERYSTWYTH.

THE T5 AND TRAIN TIMINGS ARE IRRELEVANT TO T2/T1 CONNECTIVITY IN

ABERYSTWYTH.   PLEASE LOOK AT THE T2/T1 TIMINGS PROVIDED IN YOUR REVIEW

AND WRITE BACK TO ME WITH A LIST OF THOSE THAT ARE CONNECTING SERVICES.

IF THE REVIEW HAD EXAMINED ATISN 12006 COVERING THE T2 TIMETABLE CHANGES OF 15TH JANUARY 2018, IT WOULD BE APPARENT THAT THE T2/T1 ROUTE IS DYSFUNCTIONAL

 

> —-Original message—-

> From : FOI.EconomyandInfrastructure@gov.wales

> Date : 01/05/2018 – 17:05 (GMTST)

> To : john.mct@btinternet.com

> Cc : Sue.Moffatt@gov.wales, FOI.EconomyandInfrastructure@gov.wales,

> Freedomofinformation@gov.wales

> Subject : ATISN 12099 – TrawsCymru – Internal Review

>

> Gweler llythyr ynghylch eich cwyn diweddar.  Cyfeiriwch unrhyw atebion

> at: RhyddidGwyb.EconomiaThrafnidiaeth@llyw.cymru.

>

> Please find attached correspondence regarding your recent complaint.

> Please direct any replies to FOI.EconomyandTransport@gov.wales.

>

> Cofion/Regards,

>

> Uned Busnes y Llywodraeth / Government Business Unit Adran yr Economi

> a Thrafnidiaeth / Department for Economy and Transport Llywodraeth

> Cymru / Welsh Government QED Centre, Treforest, RCT, CF37 5YR

>

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