Welcome (back) to Cymru Coastliner

Thursday 26th June 2025

It’s a brand name I believe can be traced back sixty years to 1965 when Crosville first launched Cymru Coastliner to promote its lengthy route from Chester all the way along the North Wales coast to Caernarfon. Way ahead of its time, the name stuck for decades, even though in the intervening years the route was split into multiple sections to make it more manageable (11 Chester-Rhyl; 12 Rhyl-Llandudno; 5 Llandudno-Bangor; 5C Bangor-Caernarfon).

The name fizzled out a few years ago when Arriva brought in the Sapphire brand for a more upmarket product with an added ‘sparkle’ that never quite worked…

…leaving the branding at the rear of single decks used on the most westerly section of route between Bangor and Caernarfon before being ditched completely.

However, in another exciting route development from Arriva, it’s brought back the Cymru Coastliner brand for a new limited stop service between Rhyl and Llandudno for the summer season.

Numbered CC12, an hourly timetable is operated by two former Green Line coaches in a new livery prominently featuring the Welsh dragon and Cymru Coastliner name.

End to end journey time at 53 minutes which compares favourably with the comparable all stops route 12 which continues unchanged running every 15 minutes between Rhyl and Llandudno but taking 91 minutes.

Three vehicles, including one spare, formerly used on Green Line route 757 between Victoria and Luton Airport have been given the Cymru Coastliner treatment.

As you can see from the timetable, the CC12 observes just nine stops on its 18 mile route with Towyn and Madeley’s Caravan Park, west of Rhyl, both popular with holidaymakers…

… followed by a six mile, seven minute non stop run along the A55 North Wales Expressway between Abergele and Pensarn station and Colwyn Bay station…

… and then via a diversion to stop for Rhos-on-Sea…

… and on to Llandudno.

I gave the route a try out on Monday, its first weekday, taking the 13:00 departure from Rhyl. The coach arrived in the bus station, sited alongside the town’s railway station, on time at 12:53 from its previous journey with three passengers alighting.

Route CC12 has been given its own stand (B)…

… immediately behind stand (A) used by buses on route 12.

But oddly, no timetable information for route 12 is displayed on stand A (you can see the blank case in the above photo) and instead details are shown on stand B…

… where a copy of the timetable leaflet for the new CC12 is also stuck on both sides of the end panel of the bus shelter, but the route doesn’t get a mention in the large timetable case.

Ticket prices are higher on the CC12 than on parallel route 12 with a day ticket costing £8 instead of £6.50 although if passengers already have bought the latter on a 12, or another Arriva bus, they only need pay a £1 supplement (rather than the price difference of £1.50) to validate it for travel on the CC12. The all operator North Wales 1 bws ticket costs £7 and again, passengers pay a £1 supplement to use it on the CC12.

Welsh concessionary passes are valid on the CC12 and passengers with English and Scottish passes can buy a day ticket at the child rate of £5.30 for travel on the CC12. That works out cheaper than buying a 1 bws ticket at the special rate of £4.70 to which passengers need to pay the £1 supplement. There’s also a family day ticket and a weekly ticket for adults but not for holders of English and Scottish concessionary passes which holiday makers may have found useful.

We set off spot on time with just me on board and, sadly, no one else joined us on the journey.

We paused a couple of times for a minute or so to keep on time and the coach provided a very smooth and comfortable journey with some nice views of the coastline from the A55…

… at Rhos-on-Sea…

… and approaching Llandudno.

I wasn’t able to see timetable cases on all nine bus stops we passed…

… but it looked as though a sticker with a QR code linking to a webpage about the route had been added promoting the CC12 (annoyingly covering up other information in some cases) but with no departure times displayed at the stops.

When we arrived in Llandudno this was confirmed…

… and no departure times were shown on the bus stop listing towards Rhyl (above), nor on the “not” real time display, but inside the shelter at Stand C…

… alongside a rather ugly and dispiriting poster display there was a poster promoting the CC12.

As I got off the coach I noticed the bag for copies of the Metro newspaper had been repurposed as a depository for Arriva’s splendid North Wales promotional booklet and the CC12 timetable leaflet, so helped myself to a copy…

… and it was good to see five passengers waiting for the return departure at 14:00 to Rhyl, having let a bus on the 12 leave in front.

I wish the new service all the best for a successful nine week operation this summer as I am sure there’s huge potential for it with thousands of holiday makers staying on the many campsites and enjoying this stretch of coastline.

Whenever I travel on trains along the line, which parallels the road and coastline, they are always extremely busy, especially in the height of the summer.

But it won’t be easy, with the train taking just 15 minutes to Llandudno Junction and another five minutes on to Llandudno with £10.40 for an anytime return between Rhyl and Llandudno.

To succeed, Cymru Coastliner is going to need a lot of promotion to raise awareness – not something Arriva is renowned for – although it was good to read Adam Marshall, Arriva’s Area Head of Commercial, explain on social media “we have worked with camp sites along the routes to produce a dedicated leaflet and put up our own timetables along the route. We will have staff on the ground throughout summer helping customers and selling tickets on handheld devices which will certainly help boarding times” which sounds encouraging.

And for those who like their history, Adam included a photo taken from the launch event which was attended by Andrew Hamer and “his preserved Coastliner bus whose operation and livery inspired our service.”

Good luck CC12 Cymru Coastliner.

Roger French

Summer blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu

49 thoughts on “Welcome (back) to Cymru Coastliner”

  1. I am dubious as to the viability of this route. The current passenger numbers are not viable but it is not the peak holiday season but I suspect the odds are stacked against it

    Like

    1. Not just odds stacked against it, it was poorly planned. It shouldn’t be serving Rhos on Sea as that adds a good 5 minutes to the journey for very little if any benefit and the 12 is more than sufficient for those loads.

      Secondly, what a waste of money dragging the coaches in when the only time they go above 30 is for 6 minutes on the A55, the other 45 odd minutes is spent plodding around the place. The venture would be significantly more attractive and viable if it was just made a normal X12 (which already exists as a placement journey) and using normal deckers, perhaps interworking with the normal 12.

      Instead, all of the costs of coaches, inefficiencies of a microfleet and driver training, and slower boarding/alighting. And if anything, holiday makers are known for luggage and prams etc, not the best vehicle choice really for families.

      Like

  2. Thank you for an interesting article.

    However, you’d be lucky to do Rhyl to Llandudno in 15 minutes by train!

    The average is 28-33 mins.

    Stuart.

    Like

  3. Thanks for this good news – maybe if Arriva can make a success of this, they will try some more express routes where they actually supplement the rail network e.g. Rhyl to Denbigh, to connect with the X51, which does actually get from there to Wrexham in a creditable 77 minutes (car 60 minutes per G-Maps) despite not being truly limited stop.

    The trains from Rhyl to Llandudno also mainly leave about the hour – I don’t suppose Arriva bus managers ever think of talking to their Arriva trains Wales colleagues about anything as mundane as timetabling or through-ticketing.

    Like

    1. The 12, is every 12 minutes Monday to Friday, its every 15 minutes on Saturdays.

      @Rick Townend, Arriva Trains Wales no longer operates Trains in Wales, they are now are operated by Transport For Wales, the franchise changed a few years ago

      SM

      Like

      1. Ah; thanks for that clarification – the timetable posted on Stand B at Rhyl must have been out of date then (showing every 15 minutes) as I wondered why the 12s were leaving at different times to what was posted.

        Like

        1. The timetables in stand 12 are I believe 3-4 years out of date and Arriva has never updated or removed them despite their office literally being in the bus station. Laziness amongst depot staff and their marketing teams means they have been misadvertising the service 12 timetable for a VERY long time.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. You seem very quick to blame Arriva for Conwy Council’s timetables in Conwy Council’s bus station being out of date. I believe the Council have point blank refused to address this when challenged. Of course this will all be resolved under Franchising where even more responsibility is given to the incompetent Councils.

            Like

            1. The bus station in Rhyl is Denbighshire Council’s responsibility, Rhyl being across the border.

              Like

    2. Arriva don’t run any trains in Wales Rick, perhaps you should get your facts right first?

      Setting up new multi-modal tickets now requires express consent of the Department for Transport on the part of the TOC due to the formation of Great British Railways. Nationalisation stymieing innovation from the private sector, who’d have thought it.

      Like

  4. I remember travelling on the L1 as it was in 1973 between Llandudno and Chester on a Bristol RE for the princely sum of 86p return!

    NT

    Like

  5. It’s not quite true to say the earlier Coastliner was ‘split up’. The L1 was extra to the stopping service which was in 1966 also turned into a through Chester- Caernarfon run, but quickly broken up again when traffic congestion wrecked reliability. The L1 withered away in the 1980s/90s, not least because the rail service got better. The services Roger mentions are the descendants of the stopping services.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. The Coastline has similar stand time at each end to the 12 but it runs faster. Is that timetable realistic ?

      Like

  7. The original L1 was daily Chester to Llandudno hourly extending to Caernarfon every 2 hours. Fares were the same as on parallel stopping services. Initially operated by 2 crew with FLF coaches, normal coaches or dual purpose REs. By the 70s it was one man dual purpose Nationals. All very tightly timed and drivers often exceeded the speed limits to keep time. It was a handy route as you could get to lots of places without changing. It might do better if it was extended to Conwy which is mad busy in the summer and parking is limited. One extra coach and driver required.

    Like

  8. My first encounter with the L1 was in 1978 when I used to travel from Chester to Flint on a dual purpose Leyland National. The 0800 departure from Chester was very popular with students travelling to the college on Deeside. One distinctive feature of the Nationals used was the pull down luggage rack on the side seat to the right of the door.

    Like

    1. About the same time as I encountered it when holidaying near Rhyl. After getting over the novelty of dp Nationals, something which didn’t exist in United/Northern land, I found them to be surprisingly comfortable, seat wise.

      I did once catch an evening peak extra service L1X from Chester to Flint which was operated by a Bristol FS and crew.

      Like

  9. Sadly,the standard of roadside information along the North Wales coast is appalling, with none of the local authorities, or the bus operators seeming to care.

    Addressing this right might get more ‘bums on seats’ than any 9-week bus service…

    Like

    1. The service seems to be aimed at holiday makers but with almost zero publicity that not going to work. They ned leaflets in the tourist office if any and in the local hotels and holiday camps

      Like

  10. Re- Rick Townend at 0712:-

    Following GHA’s disgrace, Arriva did start running one of its 3 Rhyl-Denbigh trips to Wrexham, and advertised them as such.

    Then it was split at Denbigh with the section from Rhyl now being every 30minutes, rather than 20. I’m not sure now whether the buses go through, but it is not advertised as such.

    However, I gather Transport for Wales has plans for a through TrawsCymru service from Rhyl to Wrexham, which will be welcome.

    Like

  11. It seems quite a lot of trouble and expense to go through for a service destined to last just nine weeks. There is certainly a market out there for faster services on many busy corridors throughout the UK, including this one. But surely it would have been more sustainable (and at less cost) initially to reduce the 12 from 12′ to 15′ and make an hourly express journey to test the waters, and not just for the summer period? And why number it “CC12”? Although reviving the Coastliner brand, the number sounds more like a Works service than an express coach supplementing the 12.

    I am sure there is a market for re-introducing express services following the entire original route, and I am surprised with so many cross-Wales links now, this corridor has escaped, although presumably there is a fear of rail passenger abstraction twixt Bangor and Rhyl/Chester.

    Terence Uden

    Like

    1. Given the very low populations in the areas it serves it will struggle

      Rhyl has a population of less than 30,000 and typically only about 10% use buses

      Like

    2. Terrence Uden I wonder if this trial will support the case for reintroducing the full route as part of the Traws network?

      Perhaps this is a toe in the water?

      Like

  12. Oh dear; why do we do roadside publicity so appallingly badly? Doesn’t anyone care anymore?

    Like

  13. I couldn’t believe that tatty timetable case, it looked like fly posting. Very unprofessional and slapdash. Deserves to fail if they can’t be bothered about how it looks.

    Peter Brown

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Totally agree. It looks awful. Whoever put the Coastliner timetable in the case, didn’t they think that case needs sorting out

      Like

  14. Rather a low key feeble attempt to generate new business. Compares unfavourably with the recent X1 at Luton, but that has competition.

    I thought the A55 was notorious for congestion in the summer so will have to see how resilient the timetable is.

    Obviously a shout came out from HQ to find a use for these spare coaches and Wales won. I’m guessing they are purchased vehicles rather than leased so need to find a use for them. Very similar to trying to find uses for purchased bendibuses once TfL didn’t want them.

    Richard Warwick

    Like

    2. On a slightly different notes the X1 seems to be doing pretty well from what I can see. Loadings look good and I’ve even seen people getting on and off at intermediate stops in Hockcliffe

      Like

  15. I think this service should do well, but the period of operation seems too restrictive to me. I thought May to September was widely recognised as a summer period? Nine weeks hardly gives any opportunity for bedding-in of the service and there’ll always be the demand for day trippers hoping to get out and about before the schools break-up.

    Given the numbers travelling so far, I do wonder whether the premium fares on this service and all those day-ticket supplements will actually stifle further what demand there is?

    Dan Tancock

    Like

  16. Got caught out by Arriva lack of care and publicity…

    I did not know the 5C continued as a 5 at Bangor, wasting 20 minutes of my time.

    Arriva, please do better!

    Like

  17. For this to attract visitors it needs to be an open top bus to complement the existing Llandudno-based City Sightseeing services. I don’t think a coach with a quicker journey time will draw many people away from their cars or the existing rail and train services.

    Like

    1. There used to be an Summer open top route along the North Wales Coast, was 100 Talacre-Conway operated by Crosville Wales, then Arriva, that got withdrawn around 2010

      Like

  19. Arriva are the main operators in the Runcorn area where I live and the website inc maps and timetables is really poor . Local management should spend a day with their counterparts down the road at Warringtons Own buses to learn how to have a decent website.

    Like

  20. The old Cymru Coastliner L1 Chester-Caernarfon [renumbered to X1 after d-reg] was a seperate express route from the stopping one which until late 70s was A1/A2/A3 Chester-Holywell-Rhyl-Llandudno-Caernarfon, however buses never ran through & a mandatory change had to be made at Rhyl bus station.

    The Rhyl-Caernarfon section was split into 2 routes, M13 Rhyl-Llandudno & M5 Llandudno-Caernarfon, whilst the Rhyl-Chester service has had various numbers over the years, before becoming the 11 group of routes, which change numbers at Holywell.

    The X1 continued to operate until the mid to late 90s [but became a Summer route, & was cut back Chester-Llandudno, some details of the routes can be found on this great website.

    https://www.railwaymedia.co.uk/Timetables/Crosville/n-bw3dbC

    SM

    .

    Like

  21. Bus services in a ‘cycle of decline’ after years of failure, watchdog warns
    Attempts to improve bus services and attract more passengers have been met by a catalogue of failures, a damning report found.

    Service levels are worse and the number of users lower than they were before Covid, the National Audit Office (NAO) said. In a report published today the watchdog said rural and suburban services are in a “cycle of decline” with routes being cut.

    Watchdog chief Gareth Davies said: “Bus travel should be an easy and reliable transport choice but governments’ attempts to improve services have not worked

    Like

  24. I think this is a great initiative from Arriva’s local team to try something different using vehicles that were available from elsewhere in the business.

    It’s a short season through the summer and I’m sure there’ll be lots of learnings from it if it’s going to return in a similar or revised format next year.

    Thank you Roger for the informative blog, great to see Andy Hamer’s preserved Olympian was part of the launch event. It’s a shame so many of your readers can’t give credit where it’s due, if they could do a better job why don’t they put their money where their mouth is instead of belittling others all the time?

    Like

Comments are closed.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑