24 hours in mid Wales

Tuesday 9th September 2025

As mentioned in recent blogs, last week saw a number of changes to bus routes in Powys, not least significant surgery to the TrawsCymru network through the county.

Whereas TrawsCymru had been expanding across mid and south east Wales over the last six years by swallowing up traditionally run local bus routes, the changes introduced from 31st August have seen a complete policy u-turn with a reversion back to ‘ordinary bus routes’ and banishment for brand TrawsCynru on a number of “inter-hub” corridors.

Here’s the TrawsCymru network map as applied before last week’s changes…

… and here’s the map following the changes.

Back in September 2018, new TrawsCymru route T12 began operating across mid Wales between Machynlleth and Wrexham via Newtown and Oswestry subsuming long standing local services along most of its substantial route. I took a ride and blogged about it back in February 2019 expecting it to become a great addition to the TrawsCymru network.

Alas, as you can see from the maps, it’s now no more and the two operators who shared the former T12 – Lloyds Coaches and Tanat Valley Coaches have reverted back to operating two separate newly numbered routes – X85 Machynlleth to Newtown (Lloyds) and X76 Newtown to Oswestry, Gobowen and St Martins (Tanat Valley). The two companies had effectively been running the T12 as two separate services connecting in Newtown for some time. The fast link from Oswestry to Wrexham has been ditched in these changes with the replacement X76 terminating instead at St Martins, a small community two miles north of Gobowen.

Meanwhile over in Brecon the long TrawsCymru route T4 between Newtown to Llandrindod, Brecon and Cardiff operated by Stagecoach has been cut short at Merthyr Tydfil and is now operated jointly by Williams Travel and Celtic Travel with Stagecoach reverting back to operating south of Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff with its own commercial route X4.

Similarly (as with the T12) also in September 2018, TrawsCyrmu route T14 was launched linking Hereford with Hay-on-Wye and Brecon then joining the T4 via Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff (operated – I believe – commercially by Stagecoach) and has also now been severed in Brecon with the Hereford section now renumbered plain X44 and operated by Sargeants with just the T4 south of Brecon to Merthyr Tydfil. I’m guessing this change may have arisen if Stagecoach no longer wanted to run the T4/T14 commercially north of Merthyr Tydfil.

A much welcome addition to the network is new route X80 between Brecon and Llandovery giving those towns a link not seen for at least a decade.

Frequencies have pretty much stayed the same on most corridors but timetables have altered and include, in some cases, new evening and Sunday journeys. Some new additional Demand Responsive routes have also been introduced.

Powys County Council consulted on these changes at the beginning of the year although much of what has been introduced has changed since that consultation (ie severing some of the TrawsCymru routes) and it’s now said “the agreed upgrade will require additional funding of a one-off investment of £1.349 million and an annual increase in budget of £2.354 million.” Net Cost of the previous network was £1.148 million.

The one-off investment arises from additional vehicle costs borne by the operators pending new vehicles being acquired by Transport for Wales for the Powys network as well as refurbishment of 12 existing Powys-owned vehicles. This will see the introduction of six battery-electric buses for an enhanced route X48 (“to compliment the Heart of Wales railway line”) and “14 large buses and smaller 8-16 seat vehicles for other contracted routes” (quotes taken from a report to a Powys County Council meeting).

It’s unclear whether the new buses now in service with Williams Travel, for example, are short term loans pending delivery of the TfW vehicles but it’s certainly impressive to see so many new buses in the area, albeit many of them sporting plain white liveries.

These changes are being described by Powys County Council (PCC) as a “‘Bridge to Franchising’ where both PCC and TfW have developed the proposed bus network in such a way that it can be scaled up and used as a blueprint for other areas”. Franchising is due to arrive in this south east corner of Wales in 2030.

I paid a visit to mid Wales at the end of last week to take a look at the changes ‘on the ground’ and try and make sense of them.

The first thing I noticed when planning the trip was just how hard a task it was. There was no explanation about the changes on Powys County Council’s website save for a full listing in service number order of each route uploaded just a few days before the changes. The TrawsCymru website was giving incorrect details for a date after the changes and Traveline Cymru was even denying routes existed (even when putting a forward date into the search criteria) including the two I wanted to travel on – the X44 and X76 (see screenshot image below). Thankfully on checking over the weekend just gone, the information has finally been uploaded into the database.

But it was missing in the week leading up to the changes and thank goodness for Lloyds Coaches who posted a comprehensive list explaining all the changes in route number order with links to the new timetables where different services were replacing those withdrawn, even to other company’s websites where appropriate. Good for them.

Quite why Transport for Wales or Powys Council didn’t do this is beyond me. It’s not a good portent for the upcoming franchise regime – and makes a mockery of calling this a ‘Bridge to Franchising’. It felt like a ‘Bridge to the Unknown’ for this prospective traveller. I hope lessons will be learnt for future network changes.

And no surprise on my travels I found multiple examples of incorrect out-of-date information in abundance with confused passengers resorting to asking drivers what times buses are running. And this was days 5 and 6 of the changes, not day 1. For example, above is a poster on display at both Newtown and Brecon promoting the now withdrawn through service to Cardiff and below is a timetable for last month’s departures to Cardiff on the T4 and T14 with incorrect times and destinations.

This is becoming a recurring theme on my travels and very much characterises an attitude where those making decisions and responsible for such things, wherever they are based (usually remotely), being completely out of touch with reality on the street. Below is another example from Brecon bus station showing out of date departure times.

And lest readers think I’m being too harsh – it was only day six of the new changes – that timetable above is dated November 2019 and is way out of date.

Those based in offices (or even at home these days) should get out more and see for themselves the hurdles placed in the way of passengers trying to actually use bus services and find out information. I wish authorities spending a fortune on consultants drawing up extensive network plans and consultation documents and coming up with catchy buzzwords like “building a sustainable Powys” would give as much attention to actually ensuring information is out there across all channels (online, print and on public display) in advance of changes and certainly from Day 1. It can be done; I speak from experience.

One final one (of many observed), I’m told route 64 to Llandovery was withdrawn more than 10 years ago, but it lives on on this bus stop flag in Brecon.

At least over in neighbouring Carmarthenshire an up to date departure listing was displayed at Llandovery bus stand, so well done to them.

Rant over but finally to add, full marks to those bus companies obviously doing their bit despite this couldn’t care less attitude from Powys County Council. For example, Tanat Valley Coaches had posted X76 timetables at many bus stops along its route…

…Williams Coaches had posted route X80 timetables between Brecon and Llandovery…

… and Sargeants had covered over the out of date rubbish about the T14 in Brecon bus station with its own print of the X44 timetable to Hereford.

Let’s hit the road.

My first journey was on the newly numbered X76 (ex T12) from Gobowen to Newtown operated by Tanat Valley Coaches. The bus was a plain white former TrawsCymru branded Optare MetroCity, given away by the seat branding inside the bus.

St Martins to Newtown is just over 31 miles necessitating a “technical split” in the route but I noticed Tanat Valley announce the destinations as Oswestry, then Welshpool and finally Newtown which just adds to the challenge for passengers not in the know about such technicalities.

The route is very much charcaterised by those three sections with all seven passengers from Gobowen alighting in Oswestry where another contingent of eight boarded and had all alighted by the time we reach Llandrinio (20 minutes from Oswestry) with then an empty ride for most of the journey down to Welshpool (another 20 minutes) save for a couple travelling a short way near Guilsfield.

A driver change in Welshpool with five boarding the bus, as I spotted another Tanat Valley vehicle on the adjacent stand being a Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora still in TrawsCymru livery, preceded a quiet run down to the terminus in Newtown bus station where about half a dozen passengers boarded for the journey back north to Welshpool and beyond.

From Newtown I caught the still numbered T4, and still branded TrawsCymru, but now only as far as Merthy Tydfil rather than Cardiff, although I was alighting in Brecon.

As you can see it was one of two brand new Volvo eVoRas in the white livery of Williams Travel who, with Celtic Travel, have taken the route over from Stagecoach. Confusingly this wasn’t in TrawsCymru branding which I assume is to do with the temporary arrangements before the new TfW vehicles arrive, although might also reflect the short notice operators were given to take on these changed routes.

It was a busy journey from Newtown with a diversion to serve Newtown College added seven minutes to the scheduled running time, although I noticed we were soon back on the “school holiday times” along the route, thereby running seven minutes early. We still seemed to pick a good number of passengers up though with a significant change over of people on board in Llandrindod. All told, 32 passengers had travelled when I left the bus at Brecon with the next Newtown bound bus arriving at the same time.

Saturday morning saw me back in Brecon bus station (actually it’s called an Interchange) to try out the brand new X80 over to Llandovery after a ten year gap. The first journey at 07:03 only runs on a Saturday (and school holidays) as during the week the bus does a school journey making the first departure from Brecon not until 09:38 returning from Llandovery at 10:47 – see timetable included earlier.

As well as being a first for me, to do this route, it was also a first for Shelley the lovely driver, being her first day on her own driving a bus in public service, although she had considerable experience doing school and private hire work.

It was a great journey along a very quiet Saturday early morning A40 to Llandovery and back and as you can see from the above photo at Llancovery, was operated by a brand new Mercedes Sprinter. Not surprisingly, no-one travelled out but two passengers did board in Trecastle coming back both being delighted to have a bus service once again. From Sennybidge (about midway along the route) passengers have had long standing route T6 from Swansea for many years which, running hourly, means the X80 isn’t the novelty it is west of Sennybridge.

From Brecon I caught the two-hourly route X44 via Hay-on-Wye to Hereford. This was the Stagecoach TrawsCymru route T14 but is now in the hands of Sargeants and was another busy journey leaving Brecon at 08:57 and arriving into Hereford at 10:38 with almost a full load of shoppers.

It was noticeable how many passengers asked the driver what time the bus would be returning, with none of them trusting information on display at bus stops, and who can blame them, especially with long withdrawn route numbers (eg route 39 back in 2018) still on display.

And that ended my brief visit to mid Wales. Always an enjoyable part of the country to visit and a pleasure to see so many new buses on the road, and good numbers travelling on some of them.

But I’m still left perplexed at the rationale behind some of the changes described above, in particular the future of the TrawsCymru brand.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS