Thursday 29th October 2026
After the Mayor of London finally got his pedestrianised Oxford Street ‘dream come true’ (see Tuesday’s blog) there’s been another ‘dream come true’ this week and that’s for the new ruling Plaid Cymru politicians in Wales desirous of a long held ambition for a faster public transport service linking north and south across the country.
The new TaithCymru branded express coach route launched on Sunday linking Bangor and Carmarthen via Caernarfon, Portmadog, Dolgellau, Machynlleth, Aberystwyth and Aberaeron.
And if many of those towns sound familiar to north-south travellers, it’s because they’re all also on the long standing TrawsCymru network, in particular routes T2 (Bangor to Aberystwyth) and T1 (Aberystwyth to Carmarthen).
But whereas a journey on the T2 and T1 takes just under four hours on the former (Bangor to Aberystwyth) and just under two and a half hours on the latter (Aberystwyth to Camarthen) making for a gruelling six and a half hours all told (assuming a very short break with a good connection in Aberystwyth), TaithCymru coaches are achieving a shorter five hours end to end journey time together with offering much better comfort for passengers and the all important toilet on board.
As you can see from the timetable below, the service has kicked off on a two-hourly frequency with an extensive span of day across seven days a week from 05:20 to 01:07 as well as an evening journey extended to the ferry terminal at Holyhead with a return journey departing at 00:42 operating through the night with an arrival into Carmarthen at 06:20.
The service is operated by Edwards Coaches and Llew Jones, (I’m assuming) each providing three of the brand new Volvo B8R MCV EvoTor coaches owned and supplied by Transport for Wales for the service.
Rather than the bright red, grey and white patriotic style colours of TrawsCymru, TaithCymru coaches adorn a more funeralistic black with white lettering and a large green ‘T’ symbol.
Tickets for the new service, which must be purchased at least 15 minutes in advance of travel, are booked online on a dedicated website using the same software as a number of coach companies, such as ember. The introductory single fare from Bangor to Carmarthen is £10, which I understand will increase to £14 in due course, while cheaper fares for intermediate journeys, for example, Bangor to Aberystwyth is £7 and Aberystwyth to Carmarthen, £4.50 are currently available.
I gave the service a try out on Tuesday and Wednesday, breaking my journey in Aberystwyth to get as much travel in the light as possible. I caught the 15:18 from Bangor railway station. It’s one of the journeys operated by Edwards Coaches, the coach having left Carmarthen at 09:15 and arriving in Bangor at 14:15 giving the driver (who’d taken over in Aberystwyth) a break of just over an hour.
The coach arrived from that journey with one passenger alighting before the driver headed off for his break.
TfW had installed both a large size ‘spreadsheet style’ TaithCymru timetable in the poster frame at the bottom of the stairs from the station footbridge at Bangor…
… as well as a smaller version in the bus stop panel.
Sadly there doesn’t seem to be a printed timetable leaflet for passengers so in the station ticket office there was a display of TrawsCymru printed timetables (for the T2/T28, T10 and T22) but nothing for TaithCymru which seems like a wasted opportunity.
The coach reappeared 50 minutes later ready for the 15:18 departure with three passengers boarding, two of whom were, like me, trying the service out of interest, travelling all the way through to Carmarthen.
We departed spot on time at 15:18 for the 24 minute non-stop run to Caernarfon, the first of just seven bus stops on the 132 mile route until reaching Carmarthen five hours later.
Caernarfon is a pick up only bus stop (set down only on Bangor bound journeys) presumably to ensure the coach doesn’t get crowded out with local passengers nor abstract from Arriva’s 20 minute frequency route 5C taking 37 minutes (There’s also a two-hourly TrawsCymru T2 taking 32 minutes which has no pick up/set down restrictions).
Bearing in mind Caernarfon is a well known gap in the rail network (and franchising will soon take over the 5C) I’m surprised TfW hasn’t grasped the nettle and integrated TaithCymru with through ticketing and advertised connections with trains. Indeed, the T2 appears on departure listings from Bangor to Aberystwyth (and the T10 to Corwen) so why not TaithCymru?
Despite slow moving traffic leaving Bangor, we arrived into Caernarfon on time at 1542 with no passengers to board so it was straight on to the next stop, 38 minutes later, in Porthmadog. But there was a treat in store as we left the bus station with the route passing the castle…
… and the Welsh Highland Railway station.
We arrived into Porthmadog four minutes early at 16:16 so waited until the scheduled departure of 16:20 with no passengers booked to travel.
Next up was Dolgellau 44 minutes later at 17:04 where the coach stops in a car park away from the bustling town centre’s Eldon Square where TrawsCymru routes converge and provide interchange.
Again, no passengers for us so after a couple of minutes pause we were on our way again to Machynlleth which we passed through a couple of minutes down at 17:42. By now the light had faded completely but before that the scenery through Snowdonia is as spectacular as ever and makes for a wonderfully scenic journey.
I can’t do justice to it with a mobile phone camera pointing through a coach window travelling at speed…
… but here are three photographs just to give a taste of what’s on offer.
After Machynlleth it’s on to Aberystwyth passing the university (an advertised stop) on the way to the town centre..
… arriving into the bus station, conveniently located next to the railway station, seven minutes early at 18:16.
There’s 13 minutes stand time scheduled at Aberystwyth and as I alighted, there was a also change of driver with the other three passengers on board since Bangor continuing their journey south.
Aberystwyth is the southern terminus of the T2 from Bangor on which some journeys are now operated by Lloyds Coaches Wright StreetDeck Ultroliner double decks interworked with the T28 to/from Machynlleth as well as being the northern terminus of the T1 from Carmarthen with Yutong E12 battery electric buses.
It’s also the northern terminus of the T5 from Haverfordwest…
… making for quite a TrawsCymru interchange hub and an impressive display of newish vehicles.
It’s a shame the poor upkeep of the bus shelters lets the whole image down…
…there wasn’t even a timetable for the new TaithCymru service on display although the shelters where it departs from did have a logo.
As in Bangor, train departure apps haven’t yet caught up with Taith Cymru’s introduction showing the slower (but more frequent – hourly – departures) on the T1 for Carmarthen and the slower T2 to Bangor. Google maps hasn’t yet caught up with its introduction either.
I was back in the bus station yesterday (Wednesday) morning to compete the journey south to Carmarthen intending to catch the 08:36 departure which was due into the bus station at 08:23, having left Bangor at 05:20.
And by a scheduling coincidence it was the same Edwards Coaches vehicle in which I’d travelled on Tuesday too, it having been down to Carmarthen after I left it on Tuesday evening and then an evening journey back to Bangor, arriving there at 02:15, before a three hour break. You can see how TfW has thrown a lot at this service in its initial phase with intensive use of the six coaches and a considerable driver resource commitment from both Edwards Coaches and Llew Jones.
The Edwards Coaches’ driver who took over the coach in Aberystwyth was telling me he was based at the company’s Swansea depot and had driven up to Aberystwyth in his car that morning to take the coach down to Carmarthen and then back to Aberystwyth after which he would return to Swansea in his car. Such arrangements must be very costly.
The coach arrived a little behind schedule at 08:35 displaying ‘Not in Service’ but it turned out the new driver bringing it in hadn’t yet mastered the electronic blind display and had driven in service from Bangor with one passenger on board who was travelling from Porthmadog to Carmarthen, a journey previously entailing a change in Aberystwyth and taking much longer.
The relieving driver sorted out the destination blind and we left six minutes late at 08:42 with just myself and the passenger from Porthmadog on board which remained the case all the way to Carmarthen.
Frustratingly, progress on the 35 minute journey to Aberaeron was slow due to a lorry doing no more than 30 mph for miles and miles. Luckily he eventually pulled over to let us, and a steam of traffic behind us, go past.
However thanks to generous timings we passed through Aberaeron only five minutes down at 09:16.
Although the scenery on this southern part of the journey is slightly less dramatic nevertheless there are some attractive vistas especially along the coast near Aberaeron.
After that, the route’s trajectory for the final 69 miniutes of the journey is inland towards our final stop at Carmarthen.
Again, as evidence of the generous journey time allowances on the service, despite a steady driving pace, we arrived into Carmarthen railway station at 10:11, nine minutes ahead of schedule.
I reckon you could shave 30 minutes off the overall end-to-end journey time which, if turnaround times at each terminus were also cut down from the current hour to 30 minutes, could result in a saving of one coach with associated driver costs.
Like Bangor, Carmarthen station had a display of T1/T1C timetable leaflets but nothing for TaithCymru although again it was good to see printed timetables displayed both large…
… and small size.
However, again, like in Aberystwyth the image is let down by poor presentation in the bus shelter…
… and the TrawsCymru promotional poster on the outside could usefully be updated with something to promote TaithCymru.
I’d got quite excited on boarding the coach in Aberystwyth and spotted some printed leaflets on card (thinking they might be timetables) but they were a child Activity Pack…
… including puzzles, a pop out model coach to make and a joke (Q: Why did the coach stop? A: It saw a zebra crossing!).
Which seemed a strange thing to print and distribute in preference to a timetable promoting the service itself.
It would also be good to see some attention given to the roadside infrastructure, not least a lack of seating at the terminal points in Bangor and Carmarthen…
…with bench type seats in both Carmarthen (above) and Aberystwyth’s shelters not particularly comfortable compared to improved arrangements many transport authorities have now invested in to provide quality infrastructure.
TaithCymru is an ambitious and costly investment for TFW but with good promotion and proper integration with both TrawsCymru and the rail network there’s no doubt there’s a significant market for north-south travel across Wales to be tapped into with rail options non existent and buses tortuously slow.
Restricting ticket sales to only advance purchase online is a bit unfortunate although companies like ember and FlixBus have successfully adopted such arrangements in their business model.
It’s also noteworthy in both Bangor and Carmarthen the terminal point is the railway station rather than the bus station which would indicate the need for much better integration with rail.
Arrival and departure times don’t seem particularly helpful for interchange, for example my coach was scheduled to arrive into Carmarthen at 10:20 with a Swansea and Cardiff bound TfW train departing at 10:24 making for a tight connection, albeit the coach arrived nine minutes early, as described. The next departure for Swansea is not for an hour. However it is tricky as train departures do vary from one hour to another. It’s a bit better at Bangor between trains from Chester arriving and departing TaithCymru coaches, albeit some connections are a little tight.
Connection times with the night ferries at Holyhead are also very odd with the TaithCymru coach arriving at the ferry terminal at 23:00 and departing at 00:42 with ferries arriving from Dublin at 23:15 (90 minutes before the coach leaves) and 02:00 (after the coach has left) and departing at 22:15 (before the coach arrives) and 01:30 (two and a half hours after the coach arrives). I’m not sure who those extended journeys to Holyhead are aimed at, as they don’t really work for those ferry times.
Concessions have been excluded from TaithCymru which is the right approach for an express service of this kind and I’m sure passengers will be prepared to pay a good value fare rather than expect a free ride for the benefit of much improved journey times.
I’m not surprised numbers travelling in these first few days are very few in number but the market for north/south travel across Wales is definitely there. It will, however, need strong sustained promotion to attract it and improved waiting facilities in the towns served.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
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