T22 finally hits the road

Saturday 24th February 2024

Dates into service for new trains along with openings of new stations are notorious for seriously slipping beyond original expectations. Deliveries of new buses also have a reputation for delays which can sometimes impact new bus route introductions, especially if they’re supposed to be operated with electric powered vehicles with associated infrastructure issues.

And that’s exactly the situation with the latest addition to the TrawsCymru network in the form of new route T22 between Caernarfon, Porthmadog and Blaenau Ffestiniog.

It was back in October 2020 the Welsh Government, TfW and Gwynedd Council excitedly announced £3.6 million of funding for six new electric buses and charging points for two new TrawsCymru routes – the T19 (Llandudno to Blaenau Ffestiniog) and the aforementioned T22.

TfW also announced both the new T19 and T22 routes would be operated by well respected Welsh independent Llew Jones Coaches with an intention to acquire a new depot in Blaenau Ffestiniog where the six buses would be based.

These things are never straightforward and despite the planning application for the new depot submitted by Gwynedd Council on land owned by Gwynedd Council, it was turned down by, (checks notes), Gwynedd Council following public objections.

After that delay the decision was taken to find an alternative site in Porthmadog.

In the meantime Llew Jones began operating route T19 with diesel buses based at its existing garage in Llanwrst, north of Betws-y-Coed, as a stop gap measure from May 2021.

In the event it turned out route T19 didn’t last long enough to receive the delayed introduction of electric buses as Llew Jones withdrew it a year ago in February 2023 having established it wasn’t a commercial proposition.

It wouldn’t have been very practical or cost effective to operate it from Porthmadog in any event.

Passengers travelling between Llandudno, Betws-y-Coed and Blaenau Ffestiniog have TfW’s Conwy Valley railway line as an alternative albeit with its 3-hourly frequency timetable and Llew Jones operates a route 19 between Llandudno and Betws-y-Coed on the west side of the River Conwy valley before switching over to the east side at Llanwrst.

As for the T22, dates for its introduction came and went – autumn 2022, then spring 2023 – but the route finally hit the road on Monday last week (12th February) so I took a trip over to North Wales on Tuesday this week to have a ride.

It’s not really a completely new route, more a merger of existing routes as well as providing some new connections.

The route section between Caernarfon and Porthmadog is two-hourly and slots in between two-hourly journeys on the longer established route T2 which runs from Bangor via Caernarfon and Porthmadog and south to Aberystwyth.

The T2 has been given a new timetable so an hourly frequency now applies between Caernarfon and Porthmadog combining the T2 and T22.

However the former T2 timetable already had a part hourly frequency (in the afternoons) and the journey time has been extended by diverting the route to include Criccieth on the coastal road to Pwllheli.

Whereas the T2 used to do the journey between Caernarfon and Porthmadog in 48 minutes it now takes 55 minutes. The new T22 follows the same route as the T2 as far south as Penygroes before deviating off the A487 to serve the villages of Llanllyfni, Nasareth, Garndolbenmaen, Ysbyty Alltwen Hospital and Tremadog giving a comparable journey time of 55 minutes to the T2. (Garndolbenmaen and Tremadog were previously served by the T2).

Between Porthmadog and Blaenau Ffestiniog the T22 has subsumed former Llew Jones routes 3B (Mondays to Saturdays) and 1S (Sundays) giving an improved regular hourly frequency by the addition of ‘short’ journeys starting at the Ysbyty Alltwen Hospital and Tremadog via Porthmadog through to Blaenau Ffestiniog in between the through journeys from Caernarfon. The Sunday timetable comprises a two-hourly frequency between Blaenau Ffestiniog, Porthmoadog and Ysbyty Alltwen Hospital taking one bus.

That’s a new and welcome development as is the through journey opportunity to Caernarfon (for communities between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Porthmadog) and, of course, the new electric buses together with the usual TrawsCymru paraphernalia including branding and enhanced bus stops, shelters and real time screens have appeared.

It takes three buses to operate the new T22 timetable and TfW has allocated four of the six new electric buses to Llew Jones although one is currently off the road for body repairs so in extremis a diesel bus from the main fleet may be substituted.

I don’t know what’s happened to the other two buses of the original order of six (but see in the comments below for the answer from a reader).

The buses are Yutong E12 models with an interesting internal layout in the front section.

Sadly the positioning of a rear facing seat on both the offside…

… and nearside over the two front wheels…

… followed by the wheelchair and buggy areas with an electronic display sign facing a rear facing wheelchair means the only glimmer of a view of the road ahead is from the next two sets of floor level nearside seats.

In the upper rear section the sign partially blocks the view ahead from the nearside seats.

There are 26 seats behind the wheelchair/buggy areas (13 double seats either side) with three pairs (two nearside and one offside), making for six seats, offering level access aside from …

… four tip ups on the offside …

… and two on the nearside…

The already mentioned two rear facing seats and one forward facing immediately behind the driver brings the number of seats to 35, assuming no wheelchairs or buggies.

I found the seats comfortable and the leg room is good.

I didn’t notice any usb sockets only a seat back mounted wireless charger holder for those with the latest smartphone models. (Thanks to everyone for pointing out the sockets at the bottom of the unit. I missed that!)

There are small red ‘mood’ lights mounted at the bottom of aisle seats in the rear section …

… and a rather large parcel shelf at the rear which could become a dust trap. Note there’s no middle seat at the rear.

Acceleration is impressive and the bus gives a smooth quiet journey but it’s a shame the problem of condensation in rainy weather (not a rarity in North Wales) makes the journey rather uncomfortable in such circumstances especially with the poor forward view.

Next stop displays and announcements weren’t evident – the signs just displayed the TrawsCymru logo – which is disappointing considering how long the route’s introduction has been delayed, and on a quirky point – I noticed the bus stopping sound when the bell is rung is the same as you hear on Pendolino trains heralding an announcement.

I travelled on the 14:05 from Caernarfon to Blaenau Ffestiniog on Tuesday afternoon. Eleven passengers boarded with five alighting by Penygroes (and one boarding there) and three alighting in Llanllynfi where four boarded. The Penygroes boarder alighted in Tremadog with the other seven all got off in Porthmadog where a fresh contingent of 12 boarded with five more joining as we made our way on the former 3B route via Minfford, Penrhyndeudraeth and Llan Ffestiniog to Blaenau Ffestiniog. Six passengers travelled all the way to Blaenau Ffestiniog with one joining me right to the terminus by the station.

I spotted quite a few newly installed TrawsCymru branded real time totem signs along the route through the steamed up windows, as well as at the terminus in Caernarfon…

… and Blaenau Ffestiniog where there’s been some serious public realm improvements since I was last there.

Not on display (which is a pity), but drivers had supplies, was a TrawsCymru timetable leaflet and map for the new route and I saw a couple of passengers ask for one, as I did.

It’s a pity in designing the timetable TfW haven’t been able to provide good connections between the T22 and the Conwy Valley line at Blaenau Ffestiniog ‘interchange’ but I guess the need to provide an even frequency with the T2 was regarded as more important.

Buses generally arrive into Blaenau Ffestiniog at 45 and leave at 15 minutes past the hour. The three-hourly frequency trains vary slightly, but ignoring the early morning train departure at 06:24 which does connect with the first bus arrival at 06:12 (although the bus leaves at 06:15), train arrivals are a few minutes either side of half past the hour at 08xx/11xx/14xx/17xx/20xx (not much good for the bus leaving at 15) and depart at around 35 (not much good for the bus arrival at 45).

I took advantage of the great value 1 Bws ticket which gives unlimited travel for a day on most buses across North Wales, including the T2/T22, and other TrawsCymru routes, costing £6.50 or just £4.40 for English/Scottish concessionary pass holders and children. But there’s no integrated daily bus and train ticket which I’m surprised TfW hadn’t addressed.

The T22 has been a long time coming and it’s good it’s now arrived.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS including tomorrow, a Su blog extra, featuring another new bus route in London.

Comments on today’s blog are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.

37 thoughts on “T22 finally hits the road”

  1. Getting all the connections to work on a route as long as the T2 is almost impossible. TfW have decided to prioritise the even hourly frequency with the T22, the T28 at the other end and the connections with buses southwards at Aberystwyth. The result is that the train connections at Blaenau and Machynlleth don’t work and I can’t really see a solution to this.

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    1. Replace the Conwy Valley line service with a bus? 😉

      For the cost of maintenance and operation of the line, you could have buses every twenty minutes from early till late with similar journey times to the train.

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      2. Hear Hear! When buses worked the comparable route, they were at one stage timed to take a couple of minutes less than the train. But the fanatical obsession with railways, particularly in Wales, over the “humble” bus will never let closure happen.

        Terence Uden

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    2. Well, the best option is to rid this nonsense of demanding all buses connect. The amount of disruptions that these changes have had on people’s lives and the taxpayers purse is incredible. Bus and train connections no longer work for so many routes all because of a socialist ideology of you can only have a bus if it connects with another route. In no logical world would bus connections with an irrelevant routes (with very few, if any, people connecting between them), be prioritised over bus/train connections. Down right stupid people within TFW are pushing a socialist bus network onto everyone. I know of at least an additional £120k being spent each year on more school buses because these new bus timetables don’t work for schools. People are getting taxis to work as the timetables don’t suit school or work flows anymore.

      There is no care in the world for journey flows. Just the fact it all looks pretty on paper.

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  2. It’s good to see an hourly frequency re-established between Caernarfon and Porthmadog. This used to be the case when the service was provided by Express Motors but that company, it was discovered, only flourished by massive fraud with Concessionary passes, which ultimately landed its owners in prison.

    May I also point out that the Llandudno-Blaenau service was probably undermined financially by the fact that Concessionary passes are accepted on Conwy Valley railway services.

    Andrew Kleissner.

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    1. The T19 was cut due to it being paid for mostly because of school transport. Conwy Council refused to pay a fair rate for school kids to travel on the bus. Then happily awarded £60k worth of closed door school contracts to other firms to run school buses rather than investing that money into the T19. T19 was killed off the Conwy Council. They are scared to admit that though. Llew Jones said at the time that their offer to Conwy Council was a reduced T19 but covered both school contracts for £30k less than who Conwy council awarded the closed door contracts to. Conwy council is dodgy as heck.

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  3. Interestingly, a new combined TC bus and TfW train map has appeared on the TfW website. Looks very smart and helps centre the bus as part of Wales’ national transport network.

    Next, the bus schedules should be loaded into the National Rail schedule and through fares enabled to properly integrate the buses into the rail system.

    Click to access TfW-network-map_High-res_ENG.pdf

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Yes – after years of rubbish map provision, the TC web site having both this map and a more geographic bus only map, clearly signposted from the home page is a big improvement. I just wish they’d sort out the inconstistency around the TC Connect routes; including the 460 and not the X47/X75 is a nonsense.

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      1. That’s before you add in the fact the T12 is listed as going via Wrexham Central bus T3 via Wrexham General but both go into Wrexham the same way, neither of which actually serve either Wrexham train station as well as various other issues. TFW is just full of incompetent hairdressing graduates with absolutely zero clue what they are doing. Nothing is proof checked and they are all just winging it, hoping no one notices just what a shambolic organisation it really is.

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    2. Good to see this improved map. The trouble is any service not TC branded is not shown so gives the impression of a worse service than actually exists (e.g. Saundersfoot and Tenby direct to Haverfordwest on the hourly 381). No doubt this route, along with others, is shown separately elsewhere what if this is the only map a potential traveller sees?

      I wonder if the 381 will ever become part of the TC network as it surely meets the original intention for bus routes to augment the rail service, even though frequencies of the former may be higher?

      Dan Tancock

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    3. Interesting that the map shows the Ffestiniog Railway but not the Welsh Highland.

      Otherwise a good map.

      Peter Brown

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  5. The other two Yutongs from the order of six are with Newport Bus for use on the Chepstow – Bristol T7 service.

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  7. Why was the new depot at Bleneau Festiniog opposed? I can understand it if it was full of diesel buses from a noise perspective, but six (or probably four) electric buses are effectively silent, so what’s the problem? Maybe access issues?

    MotCO

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    1. The opposition is the usual NIMBYism. Perhaps more understandable if a bus garage, even electric, is shoe-horned in, but how many times do people make a fuss AFTER buying a property in the vicinity of a bus garage, or even more crassly, close to an Airport.

      Terence Uden

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    2. From the coverage in Wales Online it appears the site was used as a car park by the locals and the Town Council objected. Local Councillor Annwen Daniels urged Gwynedd Council to consider alternative sites such as the town’s recycling centre. “There’s a chapel, recording studio, and school all nearby and this is where everyone parks if there’s a wedding or funeral or if picking up children from school.”

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    1. It’s stupidly expensive though, hard to get hold of (go and ask on a bus for this ticket, you’ll struggle to get it) and it’s zonal so has no care for passenger flows or possible journey opportunities.

      If it was zonal trains plus 1Bws (similar to London, zone 1-6 travel card plus all TFL buses irrespective of zone), it wouldnt be as bad.

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  11. I cannot see any corrections to the many Welsh spellings in the comments, so well done on that score! However, it is Pendolino, not Pendalino (which I suppose is pseudo-Italian).
    Steven Saunders

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  12. Looking at the bus and rail map Wales has the best national inter town bus and rail network since the 1950’s, and possibly ever as some of the rail services and north-south links were not frequent.
    But I wonder what the ‘T’ network is costing? Is anyone aware of where costs or tender results are published. Likewise what about passenger numbers, are these published?

    Elsewhere in the principality the post COVID grant has been reduced ( or removed?) and local services that were commercial are now being tendered with seemingly smaller operators losing out.
    Cardiff City Transport are being given new electric buses by the City Council, but not other operators. There seems to be no level playing field or national bus policy, although it’s clear that rail is much favoured as in 2024 the rail subsidy will be topped by by £125m on top of the existing £250m annual subsidy.

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    1. The tender awards are often published (the T1 was roughly £9.5m), but it’s very hard to parse them without sight of the contract since new buses and infrastructure are included and the contract lengths vary. Plus I believe they are gross cost contracts with TfW taking the farebox revenue / concession remebursements.

      I actually doubt even TfW knows the true net cost of the network since it lacks the counterfactual of what a minimum viable network provided commercially or via de minimis contracts might be.

      From my experience of the southern end of the network I suspect the coverage of T28 could be wrapped around school contracts like the YP04 at low cost, and the T1/T5 section to Aberaeron might even be viable commerically.

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    2. I don’t think there’d be much of a network in North and Mid Wales at all, particularly post-Covid, without the widespread tendering. Certainly what would exist away from the northern coast would be very patchy country buses for pupils and shoppers; very little use to anyone wanting to live anything resembling a modern life. There don’t seem to be many corridors which could turn a commercial profit in the post-Covid era – death by a thousand cuts would have been most likely.

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  13. For many years, starting in BR days, the Explore Wales weekly ticket covered all trains in Wales and the vast majority of bus services including most independent operators. But in Arriva Trains Wales time this was altered to exclude all buses except Arriva First Stagecoach and Cardiff Bus, allegedly because of the workload involved in allocation of revenue.
    Despite TfW now having control of rail and steadily developing its own network of supported services nothing has been done to correct this. The TfW publicity for the North Wales Rover, if you can find it, refers only to “participating” bus operators without naming them and there is no reinvent ticket for south Wales.
    Jim Davies

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    1. Just to make things worse, the ticket used to give 4 days train travel in an 8 day period but bus travel for the full 8 days. It now seems that the “4 in 8” applies to both modes, although whether this is deliberate or just lack of attention to detail on the website is debatable.
      Jim

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  14. Ysbyty is Welsh for hospital, so Ysbyty Alltwen or Alltwen Hospital – not the tautologous Ysbyty Alltwen Hospital!

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  15. Battery electric buses in general, and in particular on rural routes, are a heavily subsidised expensive government mandated absurdity. This will eventually become more and more undeniable.

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    1. You do have a point. The real win for decarbonisation would be to achieve dramatic modal shift from cars to public transportation. This could be done by more frequent and attractive services at lower prices with full integration.

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