Shambolic Neglect of the Trawscymru Network by the Welsh Government

copies Welsh Mps, Welsh Assembly Members, Gwynedd Council, Powys Council, Ceredigion Council,Carmarthenshire Council,Pembrokeshire Council,Aberystwyth Council

Shambolic Neglect of the Trawscymru Network by the Welsh Government

Posting to the BusUkForum   Follow Link    https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/trawscambria-trawscymru.53747/page-47

(1) 12 june 2018    TheGrandWazoo said: on the BusUkForum

Tender for a new T10 route from Bangor to Chirk/ Oswestry.
http://ted.europa.eu/TED/notice/udl…and+Products&WT.rss_a=248265-2018&WT.rss_ev=a

I’m quite befuddled by this tender on numerous counts:

1. This wasn’t identified as a key corridor previously by Winckler
2. There are TC corridors that were identified that haven’t been dealt with yet (and you might think could or should be addressed)
3. There are very few services across the route (and that perhaps indicates the current market)
4. Therefore, who is the market….
   • Bit of a tourist run up from Bangor to Ogwen Cottage, Capel or Betws?
   • Anything end to end?
   • Very little in terms of population for much of the route (i.e. Betws to Corwen)

All very odd

(2) 22 june 2018     JohnTrawscymru said on the BusUkForum

Very odd indeed!

The new  Oswestry/Chirk to Bangor route (Trawscymru T10) will cross the Transport Minister Ken Skates constituency of South Clwyd in a North Easterly direction to Wrexham where it will do an about turn and go in a Westerly direction across the North Wales coastal strip through Conwy , where the Trawscymru Network Manager lives.  The whole of this route is well served by existing bus and rail services and the Chirk to Wrexham part of the route across South Clwyd, which is for the benefit of Ken Skates constituents, has an hourly train service which takes 11 minutes.  It is all part of Ken Skates 600 million pound North East Wales Metro scheme .

The Wrexham to Machynleth route will also cross Ken Skates constituency of South Clwyd and provide his constituents with a link to the T5 to Cardiff in Newtown. This route does not go to Aberystwyth to connect with the T1/T5 going South.   It will be interesting to see whether the Welsh Government introduce a 15 minute delay to the T2 services in Machynleth to wait for this new service although they may have to demolish Machynleth clock to fit all the buses in (Eldon Square in Dolgellau also has a similar problem when all 3 buses are waiting for late T3 services from Wrexham).

The Winckler report in 2013 recommended that the T3 route should run from Wrexham to Aberystwyth and not to Barmouth. This was ignored by the Welsh government, even though it would have retained connectivity between T2/T1 in Aberystwyth on the Bangor to Carmarthen route and also provided a unique link between North East Wales and South/South West Wales by the T3 from Wrexham linking with the T1 to Carmarthen and the T5 to Cardigan/Fishguard/Haverfordwest..   Instead the Welsh Government introduced the Wrexham to Barmouth route “”day trip”” service which crosses the T2 Bangor to Aberystwyth route in Dolgellau.  The part of route between Wrexham and Dolgellau is 75% across Ken Skates constituency of South Clwyd and there seems to be a consistent pattern here.  On 14/11/2017 Ken Skates wrote to Ceredigion Council saying he had commissioned a review of the Wrexham to Aberystwyth route but he and his officials have ignored his directive.

The T3 route has been totally unaltered in 53 years since the bus replaced the train which was axed by Beeching. The journey time between Wrexham and Dolgellau is 2 hours 10 minutes (if you are lucky). The T2 services running North and South between Bangor and Aberystwyth run hourly/2 hourly and the only way they can connect with the T3 is by the T2 waiting in Dolgellau for 10 minutes. The Welsh government did this and because the T3 from Wrexham is always late they encouraged Gwynedd Council who manage both the T2 and T3 contracts to agree with themselves a Quality Partnership Agreement for the T2 services to wait another 10 minutes  beyond their departure time to wait for late T3 services from Wrexham .  In 2016, after a complaint to the Traffic Commissioner, the Welsh Government were forced to reduce delayed departures of the T2 to 5 minutes as a 10 minute delayed departure was illegal.

In promoting the T3 Wrexham to Barmouth route and introducing 15 minute delays to T2 services in Dolgellau,  the Welsh Government have destroyed connections in Aberystwyth between the T2/T1 services covering the strategic North/South route Bangor to Carmarthen,  which has no other form of transport available.  The introduction of the T3 Barmouth service contravened the conclusions and recommendations of the Winckler report , but it also contravened the published Welsh Government Transport Strategy (Co-author Professor Stuart Cole) which contained a key action to improve reliability and Journey times on the T2/T1  North/South Bangor to Carmarthen route.

The changes to the T2 service timetable of 01/01/2018 made by the Welsh Government also further eroded connectivity in Aberystwyth between the T2/T1 services.  For example the arrival time of the last T2 of the day at 18.40 was changed to 18.50 by introducing a 5 minute wait in Machynleth and a detour off the A487 on the edge of Aberystwyth.  Gwynedd Council, Powys Council and Ceredigion Council have all said they did not request this change.  This was a simple act of sabotage, as the Welsh Government official responsible does not want Trawscymru connections through Aberystwyth to work.   Prior to the introduction of the T3 service this T2 service left Dolgellau at 17.20 and connected with the last T1 of the day to Carmarthen leaving Aberystwyth at 18.40 which in turn connected in Carmarthen with the last train of the day to Cardiff.  When the T3 Wrexham to Barmouth route was introduced in 2014 the T2 departure time from Dolgellau was changed from 17.20 to 17.35 (to connect with the T3 from Wrexham and for the benefit of the constituents of South Clwyd) so that the T2 arrived in Aberystwyth at 18.40 and connected intermittently with the !8.40 T1 departure to Carmarthen.

The T1C Aberystwyth to Cardiff coach service was recently introduced  on 16/04/2018, (with much flag waving by Ken Skates and Elin Jones, Presiding Officer of the welsh Assembly), with a departure time of 9.30am, which unbelievably does not connect with the T2 arrival in Aberystwyth at 9.30am from Dolgellau.    No connectivity in Aberystwyth yet again and this T1C service is designed to fail as there is only one service per day instead of the previous 2 with the 701 service and passengers going to Swansea having only 3 minutes to connect with the T1S in Carmarthen.    In a few months when few passengers are using it, because passengers North of Aberystwyth cannot use it and passengers for Swansea keep missing their T1S connection , then Ken Skates will say “I am disappointed at having to withdraw this service but I told you when I closed it down before that it was not viable “. Elin Jones will say “I use the car most of the time anyway, but if the car breaks down I will just have to use the cattle truck”.

The reaction of the Welsh Government to complaints about these timetable problems is that “”operation of each Trawscymru Service is the responsibility of the relevant contracting local authority and this includes determining the timetable for each Trawscymru service“”.  The Welsh Government will not take responsibility for connectivity of Trawscymru services.  The reaction of all council’s is exactly the opposite,  as the comment from Ceredigion Council Leader Ellen Ap Gwynne indicates “”Thank you for your email regarding the Trawscymru long distance bus services in Ceredigion. As this service is part of a strategic bus route and is the responsibility of Ken Skates AM, Cabinet Secretary for Economic Development and Transport, I suggest that you refer this matter to him directly“”.  The Welsh Government have shut up shop, refuse to communicate on any of these issues and have refused to reply to Freedom of Information requests on “the timetable changes of 01/01/2018”, on “lack of connectivity between T2/T1 in Aberystwyth”, on “a T3 route from Wrexham to Aberystwyth”, and on “the Oswestry/Chirk to Bangor route” as all these questions are considered by the Welsh Government to be “”vexatious””.   The Welsh Government have a Transport Minister who apparently is only interested in improving Trawscymru services in North Wales and specifically across his own constituency of South Clwyd.   The Welsh Government have a Transport Minister who apparently is content to have connectivity of Trawscymru services through Aberystwyth run down and destroyed.   The Welsh Government employ a Trawscymru Network Manager who apparently is not responsible for Trawscymru timetables, for Trawscymru routes and for connectivity between each of the Trawscymru services in the network.  The Welsh Government employ 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) as a specialist advisor on the creation of a new Traws Cymru national coach network, and on Traws Cymru route development.    Professor Cole has not recognised that the unreliable T3 route has remained unchanged for 53 years and is the source of lack of connectivity on the T2/T1 Bangor to Carmarthen route through Aberystwyth  .  The dysfunctionality of the T2/T3/T1/T1C/T1S routes and their connections in Dolgellau, Aberystwyth and Carmarthen have not been recognised by the Trawscymru Network Manager, by Professor Cole , by Ken Skates nor by the Welsh Assembly (notably my own AM in Ceredigion Elin Jones who has been inactive over the past 2 years on all these issues and in her role as Presiding Officer of the Welsh Assembly should be holding Ken Skates and the Welsh Government to account).

So on each new Trawscymru route the Welsh Government introduce, forget about the Winckler report, forget about the published Welsh Government Transport Strategy and think only of “how will the new Trawscymru route benefit the constituents of South Clwyd”.  If you are interested in travelling from North to South or South to North through Aberystwyth then hire a car if you do not have one as it will take all day on the Trawscymru network and you may end up not reaching your destination.

I hope this has not left you still feeling befuddled.

It does leave me feeling depressed that the Welsh Government, for all their insistence on adhering to the Well-being of Future Generations Act , “”to ensure that public services deliver the best possible outcomes for people in Wales and our economy continues to grow, delivering jobs and prosperity for all.”” , ignore the Act with respect to transport through West Wales.  There is a clear conflict of interest when a Transport Minister provides better transport facilities for his own Assembly constituents at the expense of the travelling public in the rest of Wales.