The Welsh Government Review of the Trawscymru Bus Network and T3 Aberystwyth to Wrexham

Reply-To: john.mct@

Copies Welsh MPs,Welsh Assembly Members, Ceredigion Council Members, Powys Council members, Gwynedd Council members, Carmarthenshire Council members, Aberystwyth Town Council members

Dear Ken Skates,

I would like to feed into your review of the Trawscymru bus network a few recent observations and questions which I believe should be answered by the Welsh Government relating to the following 4 subjects :-

(a) My first and very 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.

(b) T2 service timings between Bangor and Aberystwyth and the Caernarfon and Bontnewydd bypass project which was approved by the Welsh Government on 24 May 2018

(c) Analysis of arrival times of the T1 Aberystwyth to Carmarthen service at Carmarthen railway station between july 2016 and now.

(d) The proposed new Trawscymru service between Chirk and Bangor, and observations on transport options in the Wrexham/South Clwyd area.

The Trawscymru T3 Wrexham to Barmouth service is not a strategic, express service . It 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 T2/T3 journey time between Aberystwyth and Wrexham is 5.5 hours, this journey time is too long.   A direct T3 route from Aberystwyth to Wrexham via Machynleth  Newtown,  Welshpool and Oswestry would be much faster and take approximately 4 hours and possibly allow connection in Newtown with the T4 from Newtown to Cardiff.

I would be grateful if you could arrange for answers to be given to the following questions:-

Question 1 Could the Minister give the reason why the review of a T3 Aberystwyth to Wrexham route has not been started.?.   (the review was commissioned by the Minister on 14/11/2017 in a letter to Alun Williams, Ceredigion Councillor responsible for transport and was recommended by the Bevan Foundation review of Trawscymru in 2013).    The current T2/T3 route from Aberystwyth to Wrexham takes 5.5 hours and this could be cut to 4 hours by a direct , strategic, express service route via Machynleth   Newtown,  Welshpool and Oswestry

Question 2 Could the Minister say when the review of a T3 Aberystwyth to Wrexham route will be started and when it will be completed.?.

Question 3 Could the Minister say when the Welsh Government Transport Strategy (Chapter 4 – Focusing our work: strategic priorities Page 48 ) will be addressed and when the Welsh Government will take action to improve journey times and reliability on the strategic North/South T2/T1 route between Bangor and Carmarthen , which has links to the rail network at Bangor, Porthmadog, Machynleth, Aberystwyth and Carmarthen?.    (The strategic North/South T2/T1 route between Bangor and Carmarthen is currently dysfunctional because of the 15 minute delays to the T2 services in Dolgellau, in both North and South directions, these delays being required to wait for late running T3 services from Wrexham)

Question 4 Could the Minister give the reason why the T3 route between Wrexham and Dolgellau follows exactly the same route as the D94 Crossville Motors bus service which replaced the Ruabon to Barmouth railway following its closure 53 years ago in 1965 ?

Question 5 Could the Minister give the reason why the T3 route was not redesigned when it was introduced in 2014 to replace the Arriva X94 service?    (The Trawscymru Network Manager has said the T3 route was “designed” as a “strategic” East-West route requiring connections with the T2/T1 North/South route between Bangor and Carmarthen.)

Question 6  Is the Minister aware that in 2013 the Welsh Government reported on a public consultation carried out on the TrawsCambria network when a government spokesman said over 300 responses were received to the consultation exercise and 70% of respondents supported the introduction of more limited stop faster express services between major centres ?

Question 7  In view of the fact that in 2013  ””70% of respondents supported  the introduction of more limited stop faster express services between major centres””,  could the Minister give the reason why the T3 route between Wrexham and Dolgellau, introduced a year later in 2014, has 42% of its length as diversions off the direct route to service outlying settlements?

Question 8  Is the Minister aware that 17 T3 services per day (9 from Dolgellau and 8 from Wrexham)  are being diverted off the direct route between Dolgellau and Wrexham to service the villages of Llanuchlynn, Llanderfel , Llandrillo and Cynwyd in the AM constituency of South Clwyd. ?

Question 9 Could the Minister give the reason why the published journey time in the timetable for the T3 service is 2 hours for the journey from Dolgellau to Wrexham and 2 hours 10 minutes from Wrexham to Dolgellau?

Question 10  Could the Minister give the reason why the T3 service is consistently between 9 and 20 minutes late in arriving at Wrexham and Dolgellau.?  (NB This is based on my experience of 2 years using the T2/T1 route through Dolgellau on a weekly basis and having to wait in Dolgellau for late T3 services from Wrexham as well as being based on my recent experience of using the T3 in May 2018)

Question 11  Could the Minister say whether the consistent lateness of between 9 and 20 minutes of the T3 service is the reason that T2 services going North and South between Bangor and Aberystwyth have to be held back for 15 minutes in Dolgellau to wait for the T3 service from Wrexham. ?

Question 12 Is the Minister aware that an Arriva no 5 bus service runs every 15 minutes/half hour (24 services per day in both directions) between Wrexham and Llangollen on exactly the same route as the Trawscymru T3 service and takes the same amount of time as the T3 (35minutes)  to cover the same journey .?

QUESTION 13  IS THE MINISTER AWARE THAT AN X5  WREXHAM TO CORWEN SERVICE ,(WHICH COVERS EXACTLY THE SAME ROUTE  AS THE TRAWSCYMRU T3), IS OPERATED BY COASTLINE TAXIS WITH 2 SERVICES PER DAY IN EACH DIRECTION AND TAKING 37 MINUTES TO REACH LLANGOLLEN ?

QUESTION 14  IS THE MINISTER AWARE THAT AN AN HOURLY BUS SERVICE (ARRIVA NO 2 WITH 14 SERVICES PER DAY IN BOTH DIRECTIONS) RUNS FROM OSWESTRY TO WREXHAM VIA CHIRK , RUABON AND JOHNSTOWN AND COVERS MOST OF THE CURRENTT3 ROUTE BETWEEN LLANGOLLEN AND WREXHAM?

Question 15 Could the Minister give the reason why passengers travelling to points between Wrexham and Llangollen cannot use local bus services(X5 and Arriva no 5 and no 2) instead of the Trawscymru T3 service?

Question 16 Could the Minister give the reason why the part of the T3 route between Wrexham and Llangollen , which is well served by local buses (X5 and Arriva no 5 and no 2), cannot be made into a direct route via the A5/A483 to save between 10 and 15 minutes in T3 journey time both into and out of Wrexham.?

Question 17  Is the Minister aware that a saving of between 10 and 15 minutes in T3 journey time into and out of Wrexham would :-

1. 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.

c) allow connectivity of the T2 and T1 services to be restored in Aberystwyth and therefore meet the published Welsh Transport Strategy. ?

Question 18  Is the Minister aware that a saving of between 10 and 15 minutes in T3 journey time into and out of Wrexham would allow the last T2 service of the day to arrive in Aberystwyth from Bangor at 18.30 and therefore comfortably connect with the last T1 service from Aberystwyth to Carmarthen at 18.40.?     This would allow passengers from Gwyned and Powys (between Bangor and Aberystwyth) to use the 15.15 T2 departure from Bangor to catch the 18.40 T1 from Aberystwyth and connect to the last train to Cardiff in Carmarthen.

Question 19  In view of the evidence supplied below based on 17 Trawscymru T1 journeys from Aberystwyth to Carmarthen rail station where the worst late arrival was 4 minutes late could the Minister say why the Trawscymru Network Manager insisted in 2016 that 10 minutes connection time was necessary for connection with the train by the 18.40 T1 departure from Aberystwyth ?

Question 20  In view of the evidence supplied below based on 17 Trawscymru T1 journeys from Aberystwyth to Carmarthen rail station could the Minister say why the T1 departure from Aberystwyth at 18.40 could not be changed to say 18.43 which would leave 7 minutes for the T1 to connect with the train in Carmarthen. ?

Question 21   Can the Minister give the reason why on 01/01/2018 the departure time of all T2 services from Bangor were brought forward by 10 minutes, the journey time between Bangor and Caernarfon increased by 10 minutes and the total journey time between Bangor and Aberystwyth increased by 10 minutes ?

Question 22  Could the Minister give the reason why on 01/01/2018 there was only one T2 service,  where the total journey between Bangor and Aberystwyth was increased by 20 minutes and not 10 minutes, and this one T2 service was the 18.40 arrival in Aberystwyth  where T1 departs to Carmarthen at 18.40 ?   Could the Minister also give the reason why on 01/01/2018 all other T2 services from Bangor had their total journey time increased by only 10 minutes and not 20 minutes ?

Question 23  Could the Minister give the reason why on 01/01/2018 the 18.40 T2 arrival in Aberystwyth was changed to 18.50 by inserting 10 minutes of delay near Aberystwyth. ?   Could the Minister give the reason why an unnecessary  wait of 5 minutes in Machynleth (16 miles from Aberystwyth) and an unnecessary 5 minute diversion off the a487 on the edge of Aberystwyth through a small village and an Aberystwyth housing estate were introduced ?

Question 24   Could the Minister give the reason why the 18.50 T2 arrival in Aberystwyth cannot be changed back to 18.40 by removing the wait of 5 minutes in Machynleth  and removing the 5 minute diversion off the a487 on the edge of Aberystwyth through a small village and an Aberystwyth housing estate ?

Question 25   Could the Minister give the reason why the 18.50 T2 arrival in Aberystwyth cannot be changed back to 18.40 and the T1 departure time in Aberystwyth be changed to from 18.40 to 18.43 giving 3 minutes of connection time in Aberystwyth and leaving the T1 7 minutes to connect with the last train to Cardiff in Carmarthen ?   (NB the Trawscymru T1C coach service from Aberystwyth introduced in April 2018 has only 3 minutes of connectivity in Carmarthen to the Trawscymru T1S to Swansea.)

Question 26   Could the Minister give the reason why the Trawscymru T2 departure from Dolgellau cannot be changed to 8.00 instead of 8.10 to allow passengers from North of Aberystwyth to reach Aberystwyth at 9.15 and connect with the T1C coach service from Aberystwyth. to Cardiff ?

Question 27   Could the Minister give the reason why the Trawscymru T1C departure from Aberystwyth to Cardiff  cannot be changed to 9.25 instead of 9.30  to allow passengers 8 minutes of connectivity instead of 3 minutes in Carmarthen to the Trawscymru T1S service to Swansea.. ?

Question 28   Can the Minister give the reason why a Trawscymru route between Oswestry/Chirk and Bangor (via Wrexham) has been reviewed by the Welsh Government ?

Question 29  Is the Minister aware of the following services between Oswestry/Chirk and Wrexham :-

(1) An hourly bus service (Arriva no 2)  from Oswestry to Wrexham via Chirk , Ruabon and Johnstown taking 60 minutes (43 minutes Chirk to Wrexham) and covering most of the current T3 route between Llangollen and Wrexham .

(2) EasyBus operates a bus from Wrexham to Oswestry and Oswestry to  Wrexham . with six services per day in both directions taking 25 minutes.

(3) An hourly train which runs from Chirk to Wrexham and which takes 12 minutes

Question 30 In view of the services outlined in question 29 can the Minister give the reason why part of the new Trawscymru bus route under review is between Oswestry/Chirk and Wrexham ?

Question 31 Can the Minister give the reason why a Trawscymru route between Oswestry/Chirk and Bangor (via Wrexham) is necessary, when there is a fast train service from Chirk to Bangor (via Wrexham) with 14 services per day and taking between 1 hr 43 minutes and .2 hrs 18 minutes ?

Question 32 Could the Minister give the reason why questions such as those above are considered by the Welsh Government to be “”vexatious”” and why the Welsh Government refuse to answer them.

YOURS SINCERELY

John McTighe

(A) MY FIRST AND VERY 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._

(1) We took the T2/T3 route in order to travel to Liverpool. The T2/T3 journey time was 5.5 hours,  This journey time is too long for a strategic, express service route, which the Trawscymru network is purported to be . A direct T3 route from Aberystwyth to Wrexham via Machynleth Newtown, Welshpool and Oswestry would be much faster and take say 4 hours and would be on good roads from Newtown onwards (2.5 hours by car).

(2) The Wrexham area is well served by both bus and train services .

There is a modern bus station  in Wrexham with electronic timetable displays, a travel  information office, plenty of toilets, a waiting room and undercover waiting areas by each bus bay with passenger seating. It is a busy bus station with plenty of services operating.

Wrexham has 2 rail stations (Wrexham Central which is the southern terminus of the Borderlands Line, also known as the Wrexham-Bidston line, which links north-east Wales to the Wirral and Merseyside. and Wrexham General which is the main hub for inter-city services to Cardiff, Holyhead, Birmingham and London.  Wrexham General also provides train services to North Wales via Chester and has an hourly service (takes 50 minutes)  to Crewe where the West Coast mainline between London and Scotland can be used ).

The impression is that a) a new Trawscymru service across North Wales via Wrexham is not needed and b) a North-East Wales Metro system costing £600 million is not justifiable when there are other areas of Wales that are in dire need of better transport services.

(3) The T3 route between Dolgellau and Wrexham is not a strategic, express service . It is a slow service which takes frequent diversions from the main roads to service outlying villages. On the journey between Dolgellau and Wrexham 2 ladies sitting in front of us went the whole distance. One was visiting the dentist, the other visiting a friend in

Maelor Hospital.   Both said they would not normally use the T3 to go to Wrexham because of the long journey time.   They would normally get one of their husbands to take them,  but both husbands were working on

22/05/2018 .

(4) A direct route between Dolgellau and Wrexham would run along the A494 to Bala , onto the A5 through Corwen and Llangollen and join the A483 to reach Wrexham.

The actual T3 route runs out of Dolgellau on the A494 for 14 miles and picks up/drops off no passengers, diverts off the A494 when it reaches lake Bala onto the b4403 to the village of llanuchlynn . The bus does a reverse and returns back through the village to where it came off the A494 (diversion 2 miles and 5 minutes) . The T3 then travels 5.5 miles to Bala . Immediately after leaving Bala the route enters the constituency of South Clwyd, and immediately diverts off the A494 onto the B4407 and takes a longer route to Corwen through the villages of llanderfel, llandrillo and cynwyd following the old Ruabon to Barmouth railway . At the village of llanderfel the T3 diverts off the B4407 into the village, turns round and returns back to the B4407 . The diversion through the 3 villages on the B4407 is 16 miles instead of 12 miles on the A494 and adds 15 minutes to the journey time between Bala and Corwen . Between Corwen and Llangollen (9 miles) the T3 uses the A5 and at Llangollen it diverts off the A5 onto the A539 for 6.5 miles through Garth, Trevor, Acrefair and Ruabon. After Ruabon the T3 goes onto the A483 for the final 6 miles into Wrexham,

The direct route from Dolgellau to Wrexham is 49 miles.  The Trawscymru T3 route is 59 miles long of which 24.5 miles (42%)  is on a diversion from the direct route

(5) The Trawscymru Network Manager has said the T3 Barmouth to Wrexham service has been “designed” as a strategic service with connections in Dolgellau to the T2 services between Bangor and Aberystwyth.   The route between Dolgellau and Wrexham has not been “designed”.  The route has not been changed in 53 years since the Ruabon to Barmouth railway closed in 1965 and the Crosville Motor Company provided a replacement bus route (the D94).  The D94 became the X94 and the X94 became the T3 but the change of numbers was the only change and the route remains the same after 53 years.

(6) 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.

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.

(7) On the 2 T3 services  that I used approximately 30% of the passengers travelled between Llangollen and Wrexham  with 10 passengers on in Llangollen (22/05/2018) and 8 passengers off in Llangollen

(25/05/2018  ). There were also few passengers who got on or off between Llangollen and Wrexham.

(8) Whilst travelling on the T3 between Llangollen and Wrexham, we passed lots of other buses.  The No 5 service by Arriva runs from Llangollen to Wrexham using the same route as the T3 via ruabon station and Johnstown . It operates every half hour and takes 35 minutes.

(Exactly the same time as the T3 which also takes 35 minutes ) . There is also a fast hourly train service (6 minutes journey time) into Wrexham from Ruabon.

(9) In view of (7) and (8) it would seem that the T3 could easily employ a direct route between Llangollen and Wrexham. This would save 15 minutes in journey time which would mean a more sensible arrangement could be put in place in Dolgellau avoiding the 15 minute delays to the T2 services in Dolgellau and allowing restoration of connectivity on the T2/T1 Bangor to Carmarthen route in Aberystwyth.

(10) The villages of llanuchlynn, llanderfel, llandrillo and cwyndd in the constituency of South Clwyd obviously should not be deprived of a bus service.  However the recent changes of January 2018 to increase the number of daily T3 services for these villages is hard to justify,  as are the changes to the T2 service to accommodate connections with those T3 services from Wrexham,  which then led to loss of connectivity between T2 and T1 in Aberystwyth.  The T3 route is a non strategic, slow local bus service , which cannot achieve its published journey times and where the route has remained unchanged for 53 years.  This T3 service should not be interfering in any way with the operation of the T2/T1 Bangor to Carmarthen strategic North/South  route.  The Welsh Government have not “designed”  this T3 route and if they insist the route remains unchanged (for 53 years) the 15 minute delays to the T2 in Dolgellau to wait for the T3 should be removed to allow connectivity between T2 and T1 to be restored in Aberystwyth.

(C) 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 on the 18.40 Aberystwyth T1 departure.