At last. Cardiff’s Bus Interchange is open.

Tuesday 2nd July 2024

Hot on the heels of the much delayed commencement of trams running to Blackpool North railway station, comes another “At last” transport development: the long awaited, much anticipated, opening of Cardiff’s new Bus Interchange on Sunday.

The Welsh capital’s former bus station closed in 2015 to make way for a smart new office development occupied by BBC Wales in the city’s prime Central Square, right in front of Cardiff Central railway station.

The replacement facility has been mired in controversy right back to the era when there was no majority control of the City Council and the minority ruling LibDems scotched the idea completely to save money. Such was the public outcry, when Labour took back control of the Council, it pledged a replacement with plans set in place for an opening in 2017, then 2019, then definitely by the end of 2023 and now, finally, seven years late and nine years without one, the sparkly new Bus Interchange finally opened for business on Sunday.

Another factor during this turbulent period has been Cardiff City Council ceding control of the project to Transport for Wales (TfW) which in recent years has overseen its delivery and now has operational control.

The new Bus Interchange has been built as part of an extensive development featuring offices, apartments and retail units situated just to the east of the former bus station’s location, still conveniently close to Central Station with pedestrian access from Central Square, but, as reported in a recent blog, comes with only 14 drive on/reverse off stands compared to the former bus station’s 34 drive through stand capacity.

However, what it lacks in capacity, it definitely makes up for in providing modern and pleasant facilities for passengers.

There are two large wall mounted electronic displays showing upcoming bus and rail departures (obviously bilingual) …

… and although Cardiff Bus doesn’t have a travel shop in the Interchange, it was good to see a display of its attractive timetable booklets and network map which used to be available at Central Station…

… but, even better, after my visit, yesterday afternoon Cardiff Bus installed another display.

Electronic displays also suspend down from the roof as you enter showing bus departures…

… and, on the reverse, as you leave, they show rail departures from the station.

Each departure bay has an electronic sign above the door showing departures – doors only open if a bus is on the stand.

There aren’t any wall mounted printed timetables or diagrams showing what service departs from where, but the electronic signs are very clear to read and show departure stands and the aforementioned timetable booklets are available – although these were printed prior to the Bus Interchange coming on stream so are not up to date in that respect. There were plenty of TfW staff on hand to help passengers when I visited yesterday late morning and across lunch time.

Readers may recall I was unsure when I peered through the doors a couple of weeks ago whether there were seats, in addition to perch style benches, so I’m pleased to report that there are including some small round tables for coffee etc.

They were also being used to distribute an A5 size flyer detailing from where services are departing.

There are free to use gender neutral toilet cubicles (including an accessible one) which will hopefully be respected by the public…

… and TfW are employing two security guards one of whom patrols around the site and the other is monitoring cctv cameras in a control room.

Indeed TfW have some smart operational offices on a mezzanine floor above one of the retail units where staff involved in rail are also now based.

TfW has also provided some rather nice facilities for bus drivers on the ground floor including a rest room with catering facilities (even including fresh milk in the fridge)…

…and toilets for staff.

There’s also a multi purpose room which could be used by a mother wishing to breast feed a child in private as well as first aid facilities…

…and there’s a very well equipped Changing Places room on the concourse.

You may also have spotted two water fountains in the photographs and extensive recycling bins (not quite up to seven bins though!).

The five retail units aren’t yet occupied but Asda and Starbucks are lined up to take the two units facing the concourse.

Tenants for the other two units, including a large one by the main entrance, are still being sought.

A decision was taken to build utilisation of the new Bus Interchange up gradually to allow for a smooth transition which is why, to kick things off this week, only 11 of the 14 departure bays are in use.

TfW has stated “there are plans for additional services to use the bus interchange later in the year, with the next phase of services expected to run from September.”

For now, Stagecoach has switched its half hourly route 122 to Tonypandy and hourly route 124 to Maerdy from Greyfriars Road to use stands 1 and 2 respectively and Cardiff Bus has moved in 11 of its services: 13 (half hourly to Ely and Drope); 25 (half hourly to Llandaff/Whitchurch); 32 (hourly to St Fagans); 61 (every 15 minutes to Pebtrebane); 62/63 (half hourly to Llandaff and Rhydlarfar or Radyr); 92/93/94 (every 10 minutes to Penarth then Dinas Powys/Sully/Barry); 95 (half hourly to Llandough and Barry); and 96 (half hourly to Wenvoe and Barry).

That makes for 24 buses an hour, and watching the arrivals and departures yesterday, it came across as a sensible opening gambit especially as Cardiff Bus drivers get used to reversing off stands – something they’ve not done previously.

Traffic light phasing at the north end of Great Western Lane – where most buses enter and exit the Interchange – may need careful monitoring when more departures are added to ensure there’s sufficient capacity across the junction without tail backs into the Interchange.

Pedestrians who’ve been used to walking along Great Western Lane as a cut through are now met with a shock as security personnel are being deployed to stop any access at both ends of the Lane for fear passengers would use it as a way to access the Interchange which would entail a dangerous walk across the bus manoeuvring area.

I suspect proper barriers will have to be erected to make this a permanent arrangement.

With the Bus Interchange operating below its ultimate capacity the area of the concourse where passengers queue for departures from each stand won’t yet be fully tested but it looked like it could be a bit tight at busy times if people queue back from the door in a straight line.

However the area in front of each departure stand is nice and open offering flexibility of where passengers can wait, albeit not in a strict queue formation.

As you can see it’s a very attractive facility and a huge improvement on what was a dated facility past its prime in the old bus station. TfW has done well to fit in as much as it has in the limited space and create an airy and pleasant place to catch a bus.

After all this time it makes sense to phase in the bus routes that are going to use the Bus Interchange rather than go for a big bang approach, as this enables staff to get used to it, operational teething issues to be sorted out and passengers to become familiar with the facilities.

Cardiff Bus have plans to bring more services into the Interchange in September, albeit the most frequent cross city routes will remain outside but, the big issue is there are no plans for Stagecoach to relocate its other long distance routes into the Bus Interchange including TrawsCymru routes T4 (Merthyr Tydfil, Brecon, Llandrindod Wells and Newton) and T14 (Merthyr Tydfil, Brecon, Hay-on-Wye and Hereford) including additional half hourly journeys as far as Merthyr Tydfil.

These routes will continue to terminate in Greyfriars Road on the northern edge of the city’s central area, which Google reckons is a 15 minute walk from Central Station. Hardly helpful for “seamless interchange” if someone arrives by train and wants to travel onwards to, say, Brecon or Hay-on-Wye.

I understand extending these routes into the Bus Interchange will cost additional resources because of the distance involved and hence Stagecoach’s reluctance. But that also indicates how much passengers are going to be inconvenienced too. TfW, which oversees and supports the TrawsCymru network, needs to find a solution to this as quickly as possible.

In the PR blurb about the new Bus Interchange, TfW reckons it will “offer better connections to and between different transport modes including bus, rail, walking, cycling and wheeling”. It adds: “the Interchange is part of our wider plan for ‘Metro Central’, an integrated transport hub that allows easy use and access to all modes of public transport on a ‘turn up and go’ basis in the heart of Cardiff”.

It needs to add… “…except for TrawsCymru”.

My thanks to both Gareth at Cardiff Bus and Gavin at TfW who I randomly met separately during my visit yesterday and kindly showed me round.

Roger French

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