Further FOI request relating to previous responses provided by Ceredigion County Council officials on Trawscymru T2/T1 connectivity in Aberystwyth

Further FOI request relating to previous responses provided by Ceredigion County Council officials

Dear Alun Williams,

I wish to make a further FOI request relating to previous responses provided by Ceredigion County Council officials regarding connecting T2/T1 services in Aberystwyth.

Who is responsible for changes to Trawscymru services in Aberystwyth ?

With respect to my attempts to make the T2 arrival in Aberystwyth at 9.30am a connecting service with the T1C departure at 9.30,  it would appear that nobody is responsible for connectivity of Trawscymru Services in Aberystwyth .   Ceredigion County Council have said that Ken Skates is responsible for changes to Trawscymru services (Ellen Ap Gwynne – Leader of Ceredigion Council on 30/05/2018 – see attached letter ellenapgwynne20052018) and Ceredigion County Council have subsequently said that the Trawscymru Strategic Management Board are responsible for Trawscymru service changes and T2/T1 connectivity in Aberystwyth (Alun Williams –Corporate Lead Officer For Policy and Performance for  Ceredigion Council on 10/08/2018 – see attached letter ceredigionallun2will10082018).

The Welsh Government have said the opposite that responsibility for changes to Trawscymru services lies with the County Councils managing the Trawscymru service contract (see attached letter simonjones05062018).  There are Trawscymru Service Delivery Groups, which discuss operational issues such as Trawscymru service contracts, timetable issues and bus performance monitoring (ie whether services are meeting the Road Traffic Commissioner’s regulations). . The Trawscymru Service Delivery Groups do not discuss strategic matters and the Trawscymru Strategic Management Board do not discuss operational issues.  Ceredigion County Council have a representative on the Trawscymru Service Delivery Groups, which discuss operational issues, but do not have a  representative on the Trawscymru Strategic Management Board.    If the Welsh Government (Simon Jones, Director For Economy and Infrastructure) is to be believed then it would appear that Alun Williams, (who presumably briefed Ellen Ap Gwynne in her reply), was wrong when he said Trawscymru service changes to allow connections between  T2/T1C  and T2/T1 services in Aberystwyth are not the responsibility of Ceredigion Council.    The argument by Alun Williams that the Trawscymru Strategic Management Board.are responsible for changes to bus service timings to improve T2/T1 connectivity in Aberystwyth is ridiculous . This argument by Alun Williams looks even more ridiculous when Ceredigion Council have recently been found to have been monitoring Trawscymru T2 Bus Service Timings in Aberystwyth.  Why does Ceredigion Council monitor Trawscymru Bus Service Timings if Ceredigion Council are not responsible for the timetable or agreeing the timetable.

Background to this request

In January 2018 the 18.40 T2 arrival (which arrived in Aberystwyth at the same time as the T1 18.40 departure to Carmarthen) was changed to 18.50.  This change to arrive at 18.50 was done by introducing an unnecessary 5 minute delay in Machynleth and a 5 minute diversion off the A487 on the edge of Aberystwyth to go through Comins Coch and the Aberystwyth Waunfawr estate   The result of this change was it was absolutely impossible to connect in Aberystwyth between the last T2 and the last T1 of the day.  Before the T3 Wrexham to Barmouth service was introduced in 2014 this particular T2 service departed from Dolgellau at 17.20 and arrived in Aberystwyth at 18.25 to connect with the 18.40 T1 service to Carmarthen.  The departure time of the T2 in Dolgellau was changed from 17.20 to 17.35 in 2014 (when the T3 service was introduced) in order to wait for T3 services from Wrexham.. The 17.35 departure time for the T2 in Dolgellau meant that the T2 arrived in Aberystwyth at 18.40 and was therefore designated a non connecting service with the 18.40 T1 departure although it did still connect intermittently with the T1..

On 27/02/2017 Ceredigion County Council in response to an FOI request said “”The TrawsCymru T1 Working Group has not met formally since the 29 October 2015 and therefore there are no minutes of any meetings or discussions relating to the issue raised.    Names/Job Titles and Contact details are therefore not available.   The name of the Corporate Transport Unit Manager is Ms. Shan Witts. The Corporate Transport Unit sits within the Local Environment Services Group, of which Mr Gerwyn Jones is the Manager.””

Gerwyn Jones of Ceredigion County Council has confirmed Shan Witts is the person from Ceredigion County Council who sits on the Trawscymru Service Delivery Groups.   I am now in receipt of Trawscymru Service Delivery Group minutes dated 24/01/2017 in which Shan Witts stated that “”Ceredigion County Council has been monitoring the T2 18.40 arrivals into Aberystwyth”” and it was also minuted that no timetable changes were planned for the T2 journey.    In January 2018 the T2 timetable was amended with 2 changes in Aberystwyth.     The first change,  (which reversed the action taken by the previous Transport  Minister Edwina Hart to resolve a complaint of lack of connectivity in Aberystwyth) , was to change the T2 departure in Aberystwyth from 10.05 to 10.00am.   The second change was to change the T2 arrival time in Aberystwyth from 18.40 to 18.50     Gwynedd Council (who manage the T2 contract) have said that these 2 changes were made by the Trawscymru Network Manager and that Ceredigion County Council agreed to both these changes. . Conversely Ceredigion County Council say the changes were not subject to their agreement.

Therefore on 24/01/2017 monitoring of T2 18.40 arrivals was being carried out by Ceredigion County Council.  One month later on  27/02/2017 Ceredigion County Council said in response to an FOI request that there were no minutes of any meetings or discussions relating to T2/T1 connectivity in Aberystwyth, which would appear to be incorrect in view of the Ceredigion Council monitoring of T2 18.40 arrivals minuted on 24/01/2017.   On 24/01/2017 there were no timetable changes planned for the T2 and in January 2018 there were 2 changes to the T2 timetable in Aberystwyth (both detrimental to connectivity between Trawscymru services in Aberystwyth) and Ceredigion County Council say that those changes were not subject to Ceredigion County Council agreement whereas Gwynedd Council say that Ceredigion County Council agreed to the changes.. One of those T2 timetable changes was to change the T2 arrival at 18.40, which was the same Trawscymru service that was the subject of monitoring by Ceredigion County Council described by Shan Witts on 24/01/2017.

Information Request

Could you please provide information on the following and reply as a Freedom of Information Request and not under the Ceredigion County Council Customer Charter . Please provide one reply and if you wish to invoke your Customer Charter by all means do so but cover the whole request as one reply:-

(1) Could you please provide a copy of the 29 October 2015 T1 Service Delivery Group Meetimg minutes.

(2) Could you please provide the dates of all the T1 Trawscymru Service Delivery Group meetings since 29 October 2015 .

(3) Could you please tell me which Trawscymru Service Delivery Group covers T2/T1 connections in Aberystwyth.

(4) Could you please tell me which Trawscymru Service Delivery Group covers T2/T5 connections in Aberystwyth.

(5) Could you please tell me which Trawscymru Service Delivery Group covers Quality Partnership Agreements in Aberystwyth

(6) Could you please tell me which Trawscymru Services in Aberystwyth (The two Trawscymru  services connecting with each other and the timings of the two Trawscymru  services that connect) have a  Quality Partnership Agreement in place to delay their departure by 5 minutes to wait for late incoming services into Aberystwyth.

(7) Could you please tell me the reason that  Ceredigion County Council carried out monitoring of the T2 18.40 arrivals in Aberystwyth, (as minuted on 24/01/2017), and please tell me over what period of time (dates from and to) that monitoring of the T2 18.40 arrivals was carried out.

(8) Could you please provide me with a copy of the monitoring data collected by Ceredigion County Council on the T2 18.40 arrivals in Aberystwyth as mentioned by Shann Witts and minuted on 24/01/2017 .

(9) Could you please provide me with a copy of the report/conclusions/recommendations produced following monitoring  of the T2 18.40 arrivals in Aberystwyth as mentioned by Shann Witts and minuted on 24/01/2017

(10) Could you please tell me whether the monitoring of T2 18.40 arrivals in Aberystwyth, as minuted on 24/01/2017, was subsequently covered in subsequent meetings of  a  Trawscymru Service Delivery Group meeting .

(11) If  the results of monitoring of T2 18.40 arrivals in Aberystwyth was covered in subsequent meetings of  a  Trawscymru Service Delivery Group meeting could you please tell me the date of the meeting and provide a copy of the minutes for that meeting.

(12) Could you please tell me whether the monitoring of T2 18.40 arrivals in Aberystwyth,  as minuted on 24/01/2017, was reported in any of the documentation produced when the 18.40 T2 arrival  was changed to 18.50 in January 2018.

(13) If the answer to Question 10  is “”no”” could you please give the reason that monitoring of T2 18.40 arrivals  was not covered in subsequent meetings of  a  Trawscymru Service Delivery Group meeting .

(14) If the answer to Question 10  is “”no”” could you please say whether monitoring of T2 18.40 arrivals was covered in any subsequent meetings of any kind.

(15) Could you please tell me whether monitoring has been carried out by Ceredigion County Council in relation to other T2 arrival times in Aberystwyth.    If  so could you please tell me which T2 arrival times were covered and whether the monitoring was reported to the Trawscymru Service Delivery Group and on what dates.it was reported..

(16) Could you please tell me whether monitoring has been carried out by Ceredigion County Council in relation to any other Trawscymru services in Aberystwyth.  If  so could you please tell me which Trawscymru services were covered  (ie T1/T5) and tell me whether the monitoring was reported to a Trawscymru Service Delivery Group and if so to which Trawscymru Service Delivery Group and the date of the meeting..

(17) Could you please tell me whether monitoring has been carried out by Ceredigion County Council in relation to other bus services in Aberystwyth (ie non Trawscymru services).

(18) Could you please tell me whether Ceredigion County Council are provided with Trawscymru Bus Performance Monitoring Reports by Bus Users Cymru  and if so for what Trawscymru services (ie T1/T2/T5)..

(19) If Ceredigion County Council are provided with Trawscymru Bus Performance Monitoring Reports by Bus Users Cymru for  T1/T2/T5 services are these reports retained by Ceredigion County Council or destroyed…

(20) If Trawscymru Bus Performance Monitoring Reports by Bus Users Cymru  are received for the T2 service could you please tell me the date of the last report received..

(21) If Trawscymru Bus Performance Monitoring Reports by Bus Users Cymru  are received for the T1 service could you please tell me the date of the last report received

(22) If Trawscymru Bus Performance Monitoring Reports by Bus Users Cymru  are received for the T5 service could you please tell me the date of the last report received (23) Could you please provide me with a copy of the Trawscymru Service Delivery Group meeting minutes at which the January 2018 T2 timetable changes were approved

(24) If the January 2018 T2 timetable changes were approved at a different  meeting could you please provide me with a copy of the meeting minutes of that meeting at which the January 2018 T2 timetable changes were approved.

Yours sincerely,

Dr John Mctighe