Tuesday 21st October 2025
Transport for Wales (TfW) staff invited me to speak at the TrawsCymru Operator Forum held in Wrexham on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. It was the second year such an event had been held, bringing together TfW staff involved with TrawsCymru and the bus operators running the services along with some key stakeholders.
From my perspective it gave an interesting insight into how this well known and well regarded brand name for the Nation’s high profile long distance bus routes is doing, especially after the recent changes in Powys, as well as hearing about exciting developments for the future.
What came across more than anything was a shared commitment and enthusiasm from everyone involved, both TfW staff and operators, to keep improving the service offer and attract more passengers.
The TfW team gave updates on revenue, passenger numbers and operational performance as well as developments in fares, tickets and marketing plans. Growth figures for passenger journeys quoted were impressive: an increase of 45% projected for the 2025/26 year (1.25 million) compared to three years earlier in 2022/23 (864,000), although presumably the latter still reflected some fallout from Covid and its recovery.
Particular stars are the T2 (Bangor- Aberystwyth) and T5 (Aberystwyth-Haverfordwest) with relative newcomer T10 (Bangor-Corwen) also doing very well, thanks to its great tourist potential traversing through Snowdonia.
Recent developments include new contracts for the operation of the truncated route T4 (Newtown-Merthyr Tydfil) and the T5 from September, a new evening service on the T1 (Carmarthen-Aberystwyth) and improved timetable coordination between the T1 and T5 between Aberaeron and Aberyswyth. The T3 timetable has been amended to improve reliability and a new T51 service between Ryhl and Wrexham has joined the TrawsCymru family (of which more shortly).
Exciting developments for next year include 30 “new high quality, low emission vehicles” representing an investment of over £8.5 million, a new Passenger Charter, further driver training opportunities including a focus on safety, a uniform refresh for drivers and a new live Customer Feedback Channel.
There’s been a significant simplification of fares and tickets with the number of individual journey fares much reduced. For example the T1 had 90 different single fare but there are now just 10 distance based single fares across the whole TrawsCymru network with a maximum single fare of £4. Some success has been achieved with through tickets to and from the rail network with 11,000 journeys in a year to a “virtual station”, mainly on the T1. Development work continues for a Tap-on/Tap-off Pay As You Go system across the network.
One interesting statistic, bearing in mind it’s a long distance network, is that 27% of passenger journeys are less than five miles with 59% less than 10 miles. Only 5% of passengers travel more than 24 mIles with route T4 having the longest average journeys of around 13 miles. Young people travel further than other passengers, mainly to college.
A very positive move to encourage more young people to travel by bus in Wales (not just on TrawsCymru) is the new MyTravelPass scheme introduced from 1st September which enables those aged 16-21 to travel for £1 single or a £3 day ticket. The scheme is being extended to include all five to 15 year olds from the beginning of next month but this cohort won’t need to obtain the MyTravelPass to enjoy the new entitlement.
Tuesday evening saw the TfW team present various awards to those operators and drivers present including operator of the route which has seen ‘Best Passenger Growth’, ‘Best Customer Engagement on the Network’, ‘Telematics Safety’ and ‘Most Punctual on the Network’, There were also awards for drivers including ‘Driver of the Year’ and ‘Special Recognition Awards’ and it was good to see how much these were appreciated by those receiving them.
I’d opted to travel to Wrexham on Tuesday morning using the latest addition to the TrawsCymru network – the newly improved and rebranded former Arriva route X51 (also 51/51B and 52) between Rhyl, Denbigh, Ruthin and Wrexham, now brought into the TrawsCymru family from the end of last month and redesignated T51.
I’d had a ride on the route in its old guise including a change of bus in Denbigh a few years ago from where you can see the 51B/X51 were at one time given the Arriva Sapphire treatment before that idea was abandoned.
This latest development is another part of TfW’s grand Network North Wales project I referred to in Saturday’s blog about Wrexham’s two stations.
The original proposal was for the route to be numbered T13 as evidenced by this extract: “Further enhancement of the Traws network through the new T13 Service will see better connections to employment and other opportunities for the communities of Rhyl, Denbigh, Ruthin, and Wrexham.”
And there it is, listed in the “The Vision”.
Funding that’s been made available for “Network North Wales” in 2025/26 has enabled a frequency increase between Wrexham and Ruthin from two-hourly to hourly as well as a new Sunday Wrexham to Rhyl timetable from 28th September…
… together with a simpler fares offer (including price reductions) and the wider available £1 per single journey (£3 day ticket) deal for 16-21 year olds, to be followed next month by 5-15 year olds.
The good news is the 30 new buses on order for TrawsCymru includes enough to fully convert and upgrade the T51 when they’re delivered next Spring when TrawsCymru branding will be added. In the meantime, aside from the frequency increase, one might be forgiven for thinking other key aspects of this route have taken something of a backward step.
The seven vehicles out on the route on Tuesday morning conveyed a rather down-at-heel impression; all being 14 year old Wright Gemini bodied Volvo double deckers which were showing their age and an allergy to the bus wash.
Interiors were not really up to the standards expected of TrawsCymru either but it was encouraging to see the new timetable available in printed form on board the buses…
… but as the journey progressed we passed bus stop after bus stop displaying no reference to the route either on the bus stop flag (in fact even the bus image logo had faded away on many)…
… with timetable cases at bus stops…
… or in bus shelters…
… throughout Denbighshire County Council’s area consistently displaying a blank space.
It got even worse when we passed into neighbouring Wrexham County Borough Council’s jurisdiction including this one…
… which didn’t look as though a passenger had boarded a bus from there for some time.
I got quite excited when approaching the bus stop photographed above to see it showing an electronic display only to get up close and see it simply stated “Flag Display”. The one below helpfully displayed a phone number passengers could ring, albeit a premium rate number.
At least someone had taken the trouble to cover up the old timetable with the new one at the terminal bus stop in Rhyl…
… and a departure listing was displayed in Wrexham bus station.
I planned to catch the 09:18 from Rhyl to Wrexham.
I realised something was wrong when the bus for the previous journey (08:48 to Denbigh) arrived into Rhyl from its incoming journey at 08:53 (18 minutes late). Looking at the tracking on bustimes.org the following bus was running similarly late although by the time it rolled into the bus station at 09:34 its lateness had worsened to 26 minutes.
Having changed drivers we set off at 09:40, 22 minutes late, and it soon became evident there was no way the lateness was going to be made up with 20 mph limits restricting speed in built up areas and even for many miles in open countryside.
By the time we reached St Asaph at 10:21 we’d slipped to being half an hour late and inevitably the bus behind (running as far as Denbigh) overtook us.
Arriving in Denbigh at 10:42 (29 minutes late) there was another problem with two buses laying over blodking access to the roundabout where we needed to make a 180 degree turn to return back up through the town centre…
… but in the event our driver needed the five minute break in the timetable at this point, and I don’t blame him – I welcomed the opportunity to stretch my legs too.
Back through Denbigh’s Vale Street at 10:50 we met a queue of traffic waiting for the bus in front, which was now heading back to Rhyl, to load up with passengers…
… because this main road through the town has now been subjected to traffic calming so everyone waits behind a waiting bus, including another bus.
Then it was through the 3-way temporary traffic lights for the second time on this journey (and the third set on the route) as the bus double runs to that roundabout to turn round…
… and inevitably more 20 mph limits and more roadworks.
On reaching Ruthin the driver was ready for a comfort stop (as too, was I), and luckily the driver knew where one was conveniently sited in council offices next to the bus stop…
… where we had another short pause so left Ruthin 41 minutes down. Then there was the deviation to serve the village of Llandegla from the main road at Pen-y-stryt as shown on the map below…
This involved a double run through the small village…
… and a reverse turn into a side road and a retrace of the route back all for no passengers and now running 43 minutes late. I see Arriva withdrew the X51 from Llandegla in January 2024 “due to the impact of 20mph on the 51 and X51 services”. There’s an interesting explanation of this move still showing on Arriva’s website, including repeating the third paragraph (with the word “these” replace by the word “three” in the first sentence of the third paragraph (spot the difference!)
Following much lobbying from local politicians the bus route was reinstated to the village in June 2024.
I’m not sure these sorts of dog legs and double runs are appropriate for long distance bus routes like TrawsCymru.
After this we reached the outskirts of Wrexham and finally arrived at the city’s bus station 50 minutes late.
Looking at punctuality of other buses on the T51 it would seem my experience was a one off as I noticed the same journey later in the week ran to time. I think the incoming journey into Rhyl had been driven by a new driver and my sympathy was with the driver who took over who really didn’t stand a chance of getting back on time.
For me, and other passengers that day, it wasn’t a very encouraging start to the new T51 experience. I remain puzzled why the T51 ‘rebrand’ didn’t await the new vehicles next Spring. It also seems odd to lose the T12 and T14 from the network (see previous blog on this) but gain a T51.
One thing Network North Wales could useful fund is a desperately needed upgrade to bus stop facilities, particularly on the T51, including the display of information. Something I think TfW needs to wrestle away from Councils who quite evidently have no interest in it anyway.
Back at the Operator Forum it was great to meet up with fellow presenters Giles Fearnley, Thomas Ableman and Vitto Pizzuti who all shared their insights into what will take TrawsCymru to the next level, not least the latter sharing the challenges faced converting route 36 over to electric propulsion. Vitto passed on some key lessons
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
45% is only impressive if the resource requirements have increased by less than 45%, and there have been big increases in the network over the last three years. The costs of all of this seem well hidden. As Roger and other blogs have shown there is a lack of attention to detail on the publicity front all over Wales.
With the rail network also posting an annual near 20% increase in passengers but despite this impressive number the loss on rail services has continued to increase, so it appears that Wales is living well beyond its means and the money will run out at some stage. What then?
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20 mph may be acceptable and indeed desirable in urban residential roads, but most certainly not on many main roads and for swathes of countryside. The sheer strain on bus Drivers in particular, in trying to keep speeds down must make the job very unattractive.
I am surprised there has not been more resistance to this madness, but like so many things, few dare to question safety statistics. But a balance has to be struck between common sense and realistic speed limits.
Terence Uden
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The 20mph speed limits are being reviewed all over Wales, as far as I know with the local communities making the decisions.
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Do buses generally have cruise control (or even better adaptive cruise control, to follow a leading vehicle at a safe distance which is not quite moving at the speed limit and there is no opportunity to overtake)?
I find in my car that cruise control makes 20mph bearable in more free flowing urban areas of London.
MilesT
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Cruise control in my car doesn’t operate at speeds below 25mph (40km/h), which is very annoying. If buses were fitted with a similar system, it would be useless for routes like this!
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Many thanks for this at least partly encouraging episode. It’s good to read through the Vision statement expressesd in that much detail; I expect most of us will have items we should have liked to be in there (mine would be tackling the road-works issue – though I’m really pleased level crossings are on the agenda). But a lot of it is very good, and – as you report – the whole event sounds like a deserved success – I’m sure your own contribution was well-received, as you are able to combine the perspectives of passengers, staff and management.
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It will be interesting to see this years passenger numbers given the Powys changes, with the major truncation of the T4 and withdrawal of T12 and T14.
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This ticket looks good value, with ENCTS holders recognised.
https://www.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/en/Residents/Parking-roads-and-travel/Travel-passes/1bws-Ticket.aspx
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The withdrawal of the Merthyr Tydfil – Cardiff section of the T4 might be more acceptable if it served the railway station and through tickets were available. They manage this on the T1 so why not the T4?
Chris B
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I believe the Merthyr-Cardiff section is commercially operated by Stagecoach, but the Merthyr-Newtown section is tendered, so Stagecoach merged the X4 with the T4 when they won the tender, but that route has now been split since Stagecoach lost the tender for the Merthyr-Newtown section.
Shame the T12 has been withdrawn, there does need a fast Oswestry-Wrexham service, given the nearest station to Oswestry is Gobowen, & the only direct route Arriva 2/2A is painfully slow taking anything from 70 to 90 minutes, the T12 took around 45 minutes
SM
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If the fast journey took 45mins, you only need double the time now to 90mins. It’s Wales what do you expect improvements, the idea is that nobody will make the journey due to the length of time it takes. They will carry out a review a few months later, then decide to cancel the service due to low passenger numbers.
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I travel regularly between Ruthin and Wrexham. The timekeeping has worsened considerably since the T51 commenced. Last Monday I arrived back in Ruthin thirty minutes late. The bus drivers blame Trawscymru for unrealistic journey times.
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I’d be highly dubious about TC passenger growth numbers without a detailed look at whether they include or exclude conversion of routes to TC branding. For example the T2 was previously overlaid on top of an hourly X28 (largely doubled decked) which handled the bulk of the local traffic at the southern end of the route. Now a combined T2/T28 provides the entire service, and from my experience the result is endemic poor time keeping southbound and rush hour journeys barely able to cope with the numbers of school kids needing to use them. As another poster has said, how they present next year’s numbers given the gutting of the TC network in Powis will be very interesting.
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Unrealistic Journey Times – surley by now AI could write a reasonable first draft timetable given say congestion history google holds from google maps tracking of devices at differing times of day.
Obsession with round sum speed limits – while more test track research should be done or results released easily into the public domain – in places 25mph is more appropriate , others 35mph – up or down from30/40 or 45mph
A MSN news feed on today was a report of a resident for some time of France coming back to UK to visit Wales and they were quite positive about the scope in place and across the day of frequency to towns and villages , certainly compared to France.
When Expresswest took on routes to west wales in the 1980s there were a number (3?) of double runs and reverses once one was west of Port Talbot essentially. The amount of welsh spoken in those sections was notable too.
As Cardiff Docks area expand I wonder if more Valleys into Newport routes will extend to terminate in those new areas rather than the more traditional centres of Cardiff – with onward journey via the tramtrain section of the extended rail routes into Cardiff in planning.
JBC Prestatyn
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I Thought TrawsCymru was supposed to be an express bus network to fill the gaps in the rail network. The buses themselves look distinctive from local buses but the bus stops should really be distinctive to match. Something like the Brighton & Hove express stop totem poles, with NEW branded shelters and actual information. Then TfW needs to tackle on street parking at all pinch points where services are delayed. Perhaps funding conversion of front gardens to parking (permeable surfaces of course). There shouldn’t be double runs on express services so there should be integration of local bus services with TrawsCymru with timed connections at strategic interchanges. Removing street parking, ensuring layover bays don’t obstruct services, traffic light priority at known problem junctions etc would all contribute to service regularity to make interchanges possible.
Peter Brown
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I am also a regular passenger twixt Ruthin and Wrexham (as per the comment at 1011 this morning). The T51 timetable is a welcome improvement on weekdays and Sundays and the partnership including Denbighshire, Arriva and TfW is to be congratulated. As a passenger, I am pleased that the partnership didn’t wait for the new buses to launch the timetable improvements.
Timekeeping certainly has been an issue. But the running time between Ruthin and Wrexham hasn’t actually changed with from X51 to T51. Speed limits haven’t changed, either. I therefore wonder whether there’s something else going on.
Last week, I was on a bus for over 150 minutes for a 53 minute journey, thanks to utter gridlock in Wrexham. We’d reached Ruthin when we were due in Rhyl. There’ve been roadworks north of Ruthin and south, some major.
‘One interesting statistic, bearing in mind it’s a long distance network, is that 27% of passenger journeys are less than five miles…’ Interesting indeed, but by piecing together shorter legs into a longer service there’s possibility of ridership increases by opening up markets otherwise untapped.
Llandegla… ‘I’m not sure these sorts of dog legs and double runs are appropriate for long distance bus routes like TrawsCymru.’ I am sure the villagers have a different opinion. They have no other bus nor anything nearby. Coleg Llysfasi, Llandegla and Bwlchgwyn are the only settlements across or near the uplands from Ruthin before hitting urban Wrexham at Minera Five Crosses, and passengers from these villages are welcome. They all contribute to the route’s sustainability.
‘I Thought TrawsCymru was supposed to be an express bus network to fill the gaps in the rail network.’ Not all Traws buses are express. But the T51 is a classic example of ‘filling in the gaps’. There are railheads at both ends but the towns of Rhuddlan, St Asaph, Denbigh and Ruthin lost their rail service in 1962.
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Journey times have been reduced. My return X51 bus from Wrexham to Ruthin used to be timed to take sixty-four minutes. The replacement T51 bus is timed to only take fifty-three minutes for the same route. Timekeeping between Ruthin and Wrexham has been bad for many years. The T51 has made it even worse.
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Serving Llandegla is good for Offa’s Dyke Path Walkers.
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I was impressed on a visit to Aberystwyth last week to see the train station departures board including TrwsCymru bus departures too. Mind you, there’s plenty of capacity on the board as it isn’t exactly crowded with train departures. What was disappointing was that we couldn’t find any convenient combinations of train & bus to get us from Aberdovey to Aberystwyth and back. Our compromise was to drive from Aberdovey to Machynlleth and use the train to get to/from Aberystwyth. Connections along the west coast northwards from its biggest town are not good unless you want to miss out whole stretches on the way to Bangor.
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The train connections between Aberdovey and Aberystwyth are a text book example of what happens without a clockface timetable:
08.23 58mins (change at Dovey Junction)
09.33 1 hour 49mins (change at Dovey Junction)
11.36 44mins (change at Dovey Junction)
13.31 1 hour 50mins (change at Dovey Junction).
Lloyds actually advertise connections (and have done since the days of the X28 and X29) but I’ve not used them enough to know if they are reliable.https://lloydscoaches.com/g21april25/
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Lloyds are usually pretty good at these connections, waiting at the Clock for the X28 to arrive before departing – from all experiences using they’ve never left me stranded in Mach, even if the X28 has been delayed by a few mins – Dai
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When I lived in Southampton the council had a passion for building bus stops out into the road . Often this meant when the bus stopped everything stopped .
On one occasion I saw a bus stop on Shirley Rd to pick up a lot of passengers. All the traffic behind it ground to a stop , including 5 other buses which then took it in turn to stop at the same stop . The last bus probably took nearly 10 minutes to cover 300m , and I found myself wondering how anyone could consider building the stop out into the road slowing all the buses down was a good idea to encourage bus use . It would have been far better to leave the stop where it was and extend the length so two buses could stop at the same time.
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I guess that you are referring to the stop outside St Boniface Church in Shirley Road ( I used to live about 100 yards from it ), and I think that the original intention was to prevent buses losing time while trying to pull out into the flowing traffic, having stopped to pick up passengers. Certainly there was a frequent bus service at that point ( at the time I lived there! ) – effectively 3 services, each running every 10 minutes Mon-Sat daytimes; and bunching did inevitably occur, although I don’t recall it very often being quite as bad as you mention. In practice, it would only be possible for other traffic to overtake a bus at the stop when there is no traffic in the other direction, so that the benefit to buses, and the inconvenience to other traffic, would probably generally have been relatively minor.
Nigel Frampton
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Is there any significance in the fact that the illustration on the document entitled “Network North Wales – A vision for a transformed transport network for North Wales” shows only two modes of transport in use – feet and bicycles?
RC169
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The passenger growth quoted is NOT comparing like for like.
The point about costs, and living within means is well made. The rail side of TfW shows no economic reality.
Good ideas do not necessarily make good ideas.
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“Good ideas do not necessarily make good ideas.”
Possibly you mean “good ideas do not necessarily make economic sense”?
RC169
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“the T1 had 90 different single fare but there are now just 10 distance based single fares across the whole TrawsCymru network with a maximum single fare of £4”
This bit here is what they need to do with all rail fares across the whole country!
But despite straightforward and reasonable fares, the 20mph limits could really undermine their efforts. I want 20mph in all residential areas in England, but Wales clearly took it too far. The main roads for the most part (where buses run) should be 30mph and villages/ country lanes are very safe at the usual speed limits of 40 to 50 mph. The solution in Wales needs some common sense and only apply the limits on a case by case basis. What works in Inner Cardiff obviously wouldn’t work on a rural road in North Wales. Surprised no one in Welsh government realised that.
Aaron
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I am a little disappointed by this blog. Not the actual blog but the lack of vision for the future of TrawsCymru.
Originally it was a limited stop, north to south service to link up the country of Wales. Now it seems to be being used for a disparate group of funded services – ones with money from the Sennedd rather than the local councils? I was hoping this report would show a vision for the future but this is greatly lacking.
I was in Powys recently and rode on some of the former TrawsCymru routes. They didn’t strike me as anything special or serving a special market, just ordinary local routes. I was impressed though by the value for money fares. Perhaps this is behind the claimed patronage uplifts? Is that sustainable in the long term?
Richard Warwick
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No Trawscambria service to Cardiff from Merthyr. N
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STILL NO SEVICE DIRECTLY FROM SWANSEA TO ABERYSTWYTH OR VICE VERSA. DON’T FEEL SAFE GOINNG FOM CARMARTHEN RAILWAY STATION TO BUS STATION OR WAITING IN TRAIN STATION ON WINTER EVENINGS
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No need to shout !
Petras409
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so sorry T12 Newtown to Wrexham has finished it was so fast and useful for the Mealor hospital. Now there aren’t buses going past the hospital unless you go to the bus station and out again. ARRIVA fron oswestry to wrexham take for ever.
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We’ll never leave you stranded!
If your bus is cancelled, severely delayed (30 minutes or more), runs early or is unable to pick you up for any other reason (e.g. if it is full), and the next Central Connect bus is more than 30 minutes away, we will pay for alternative transport to get you to your destination. This may be by travelling with another bus operator, or by train or tram, or alternatively you may need to get a lift from a friend or relative (in which case we reimburse fuel costs) or take a taxi.
Please note that all Passenger Promise claims are cross-checked by our commercial team. If you claim for a journey where our GPS tracking and CCTV systems show that the claimed disruption did not occur, your refund claim will not be paid.
Please be advised that Passenger Promise covers our Ting and Flexibus+ DRT services, but only if you have a confirmed booking for the service which subsequently gets cancelled for operational reasons. If you are unable to make a booking because the service is fully booked at the time that you wish to travel, you are not able to reclaim costs via Passenger Promise.
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Would it make sense to “promote” TrawsCymru services via the “Plusbus” scheme, even if the fare discount would be modest to minimal? (maybe a bit more of a discount when combining PlusBus with an eligible railcard e.g. Senior for 60-67 age range, Youth Disabled).
https://www.plusbus.info/locations/wales
MilesT
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Hello 20 mph is a n onsense.. 25mph or 40 kph might make sense but the Dft seems to only think in 10 mph steps ,
30 mph is too fast on many urban roads as cards are so noisy and I assume many drivers actually go at 32/33 mph
malcolm chase
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