One Nation

Among all the words written about the so-called ‘nationalisation’ (that rather isn’t) of the east coast main railway line, we should remember two things. First, the same fate would’ve befallen all three other franchise bidders. Secondly, there are other lines, for example, those in, erm, Wales?

Most of Wales’ patchy rail network runs around the principality’s periphery (serving much of its population). Since partial devolution, there’s a desire within the region to become more united. It’s up to the bus to fill the gaps.

A newish bus/rail map shows just what’s been achieved. It marks out all rail routes plus the Trawscambria bus network, side-by-side. This is a positive development, no doubt made much easier by Welsh government funding for both bus & rail and a single bus/rail operator over much of Wales—Arriva. Of the Trawscambria network, the maps calls it’s “expanding”. That isn’t strictly true because, in the last four years, the network has certainly expanded but is now static. In fact, Arriva Buses Wales has recently retrenched from Chester to Wrexham on its Barmouth X94. With the recent appointment of a Welsh Trawscambria manager, things may change. His remit is developmental though lean years to come may have some impact.

One easy way of expanding Trawscambria is to fill in the gaps between the map’s red buses and green trains and to subsume those bus services not directly competing with rail that perform more than local functions. These might include the X63 Brecon-Swansea, X43 Abergavenny-Cardiff and X50/52 Rhyl-Wrexham. The recent upgrade to the X63 was designed to Trawscambria specification.

Now’s the right time to see a second Trawscambria expansion. Trawscambria was born 30 years ago—remember the 700 Bangor-Cardiff?—and its development till 2005 was patchy. To date, the principle’s been the replacement of sometimes piecemeal services with regular, connecting ones. Seasonal traffic congestion in parts of rural Wales can hinder these connections. Pivotal has been the all-new Newtown-Brecon service, the first time ever there’s been a regular bus along the Cambrian mountain spine.

Trawscambria is now a Welsh government-controlled brand though technically it still belongs to Arriva Buses Wales as successor to the original owner, Crosville Motor Services. You can now see Trawscambria branding on Arriva, First, Stagecoach & Richards Bros buses.

Update at 1800: find the map online here

Additional information by Omnibuses’ Northern Correspondent