From 12 September trains will be replaced by coaches from Machynlleth to Pwllheli. Looking at the timetable there is clearly an attempt to provide a fast and a slow service as far as Harlech, with the fast service stopping only at Tywyn and Barmouth, and the slow service leaving at the same time stopping at all (13) intermediate stations. In theory that's great if you want to get to the Harlech to Pwllheli section more quickly, but why oh why has the coach been routed via Tywyn?
Machynlleth to Barmouth can be done in 48 minutes by coach if travelled directly (based on a predicted car driving time of 43 minutes, and let's face it you can't overtake much on this route so a coach time will be little different). But the "fast" coaches are routed via Tywyn which means this section actually takes 1h28m, thus costing travellers 40 minutes. What kind if fast service is this, and what is it for? Passengers travelling from Shrewsbury etc to Tywyn only gain 7 minutes by taking the fast coach, so there's little point in it being for that reason, but those travelling to everywhere towards Barmouth and beyond will all have to take an extra 40 minutes. I wonder how many passengers travel to Tywyn, compared to those who travel to everywhere else? I would venture to suggest that 7 minutes to Tywyn only, really isn't worth costing 40 minutes to every other station from Barmouth onwards.
Can anyone explain this? For all the world this seems like it simply wasn't given much, if any thought, but surely it's not just bad planning?
As someone who spent a fair amount of time of time on the block last year, I would love to know the same and having discussions with drivers, they say the same, especially at night. Unfortunately though, not a lot that TFW do with RRBs makes sense. From discussions I had, 90% or so were in agreeance that Tywyn wasn't needed. Infact, it was noticeable how much happier passengers were when Tywyn was missed (due to a road closure near Penhelig). Buses were 40 minutes quicker, coordinators said that buses couldn't get sent too early so pax had to wait a bit but most then went into town to get a coffee but if it was planned in officially, it would be a good 10 min stop off point (making it overall, 30 minutes quicker. 40 mins quicker but minus the 10 min stop off) for a toilet and refreshment break. I will say though, the amount of feedback that went through systems regarding that block last year and, based off the information that is known so far, not a single bit of it has been listened to for this year, and it will probably be ignored for next year.
There are only 2 logical reasons to send the coach via Tywyn. Firstly, if the minibus is busy for Fairbourne and Morfa, it provides extra capacity at lower cost than standbys (or just request low floor small service buses (or Solos as bus people will know them) to provide the stopper capacity rather than 16 seaters which aren't accessible, are cramped and no one wants to be on). Secondly and I think is the actual answer, TFW don't want passengers to have a faster journey by road as it would show up just how slow the train service is and it become a point that passengers prefer the bus over the train.
Planning this timetable is a catch 21 situation. Its hard to please everyone. When the train service is operation all trains call at Tywyn. The fast bus calls at the larger stations which near the main roads. The slower service is usually a smaller vehicle which is suitable for access to the smaller stations. its hard to please everyone.
The coaches also can't call at some stops due to them not being accessible at all for a coach to stop. Like a bus waiting at Tal-y-bont can't use the lift and would block the whole road if they were waiting time.
As I understand it a large number of the passengers getting on at Barmouth are actually travelling to either Tywyn or Harlech and vice versa so aren't affected by the bus route. The numbers travelling through to Machynlleth outside of the school holidays are quite low so ts a case of prioritising the buses route to meet the needs of the maximum number of passengers.
From my experience working on the block, actually, a good chunk of the traffic was Fairbourne and Morfa or Mach heading southbound. There were Tywyn passengers but rare for the stopper to be that full that it couldn't handle Tywyn passengers as well. There aren't silly high numbers travelling to Mach but certainly Sept-Oct there can be a few, mainly international tourists.
I will need to use this service on 15 September and 17 September. I have a rail trip to North Wales planned, involving Ffestiniog, Welsh Highland and (hopefully) Tal-y-llyn and Fairbourne railways. We're doing the whole thing by train (neither of us drive). One of the things I had been most looking forward to was the trip on the Cambrian Coast line from Porthmadog (where we will be based for part of the trip) to Tywyn to get to the Tal-y-llyn. We also need to get from Porthmadog to Machynlleth on 17 September (with a stop-off in Fairbourne en route). So I was somewhat disappointed to find out that that stretch of the line will be operated by a replacement bus service when we are there, but never mind, it's just a reason to go back next year.
Although I have been to Porthmadog before, I have no experience of that line or the public transport in the region. I do hope that the replacement bus/coach will be usable (i.e. not too full!). There doesn't look to be another good alternative to get from Porthmadog to Tywyn. There does appear to be an option involving 2 buses but with only a 5 minute changeover time between the two buses. There looks to be a better option from Porthmadog to Mac (the T2 bus) if you want to go directly, but given that we are hoping to visit the Fairbourne Railway en route, the replacement bus is likely the better option.
The T2 is a good alternative option, much quicker than the Rail Rep bus but the train connections aren't as good. I'll always promote the T2 and the Caelloi 3 over the RRB since they both accept and issue 1Bws (£6 bus ticket covering 99.9% of buses in North Wales) and they are a bit better than the RRBs in that they are regular and offer faster journeys sometimes.
I'd say one alternative, depending on any accessibility requirements, could be the Barmouth to Fairbourne boat. That then drops you at the end of the Fairbourne railway line. Lots of planning needed though to make all that work.
It's not completely clear to me whether the RMT strikes announced on 15 and 17 September will have any impact on this service. I contacted TfW and they said they were still planning to run their services as normal but would provide further updates in due course.
Normally, on strike days, all pre planned TFW work gets cancelled. The recent strikes stopped the Gloucester-Lydney blockade for example so I'd say that the chances are, no RRBs on strike days though given there is a strong commuter and student flow on this line, the case for buses is quite strong but it does seem to go against what they have done every other time a strike has been on.
