I think you are being unduly harsh in your comments. In any interconnecting network, such as TrawsCymru, it is always going to be the case that some putative connections cannot be made. Just looking at the Sunday timetable for Route T22 . . . there is a 2-hourly service connecting with a 2-hourly service at Porthmadog on Route T2, which also connects with a 2-hourly service on Route T3 at Dolgellau.
You seem to have used the Sunday timetable as the way to build a case that the T22 timetable is good! It's worth noting that connections between the T22 and T2 can be made at any stop between Oakley Arms and Porthmadog. Oakley Arms is a connection point and it was the case that Lloyds used to have this as a connection between the T2 and 35 (Doll - Blaenau) to fill in gaps in the 3B timetable.
The connections at Dolgellau are within a 10 minute window at Eldon Square (4 buses there must be fun!). The connections at Porthmadog between T22 and T2 are similarly 10 minutes, although the T2 only pauses for 5 minutes.
Yeah, Dolgellau is wonderful when it is rammed with buses. Completely inaccessible for less able people as it always means buses loading in the middle of the road. 100% safest way of working and best practice!
So, the following interconnecting journeys are possible: Bl. Ffestiniog towards Caernarfon and towards Aberystwyth, and towards Wrecsam and Abermaw by changing again at Dolgellau. I think that's pretty darn good!!
Blaenau to Caernarfon is already a connection as the T22 runs through.
Blaenau to Aberystwyth and Wrexham, Woohoo, connections but how many people are making this journey! Almost nil! You are satisfying one or two people but not accommodating a lot of other peoples journeys. This area has huge links to North West England, connections onto trains at Blaenau to make connections onto the North Wales Coast at Llandudno Junction will be significantly more popular than people going Blaenau to Wrexham via Porthmadog and Dolgellau.
Barmouth passengers will eventually change in Porthmadog onto the G23 which is set to be introduced on Sundays. That should be quicker. Alternatively, connections onto trains at Porthmadog or Minffordd (or Penrhyn if people walk down the hill). Peoples journey of choice is not going to the T22 to Port, T2 to Dol, T3 to Barmouth.
If the price for all that is that a connection at Bl. Ffestiniog with a 3-hourly train service isn't met . . . good trade off! In any case . . . quite how a 2-hourly bus service is supposed to connect effectively with a 3-hourly train service . . . well, you tell me!
You can't make ever train link up on Sundays, more can be done though such as the 17:44 train arrives, the bus leaves 17:43. During the week however, the T22 is hourly and a lot more bus-train and train-bus connections could be made if they cared enough to do it.
It is also the case that Caelloi's Route 3 doesn't connect at Porthmadog . . . again, with Caelloi running (on Sundays) every 2 hours 10 minutes . . . good luck connecting reliably with that!
Caellois 3 on a Sunday is a Gwynedd tender. The service is quite clearly built to be a 1 bus, 1 driver tender so accommodates breaks which makes it harder for the service. Some people value taxpayers money and therefore try to make a service efficient rather than throw it down the drain on satisfying connections for people to not make. It would be good to extend the Caelloi 3 to Blaenau on Sundays as that would give them the stable frequency and make things easier but that is unlikely to happen just yet.
Looking at the weekday timetables . . . again, the timetable for Route T22 has to fit around the timetable for Route T2, which has to connect with Route T3 at Dolgellau. Unless all these timetables are adjusted substantially, then connecting at Bl. Ffestiniog with the train is always going to be difficult. I haven't checked any other connections along these routes, but there may well be others that would require attention.
So you are prioritising connections over journeys that people actually make. It's yet another example, like the T3 changes, of TrawsCymrus team prioritising connections which people aren't making, over giving people journeys that they actually want to make! You shall only make journeys that the Welsh Govt want you to make, not make journeys that you want to make because the staff employed by the Welsh Govt refuse to timetable bus services so that it works for peoples actual journey patterns.
So . . . in summary, I reckon that the TrawsCymru timetabling team have done quite well, nay, VERY well, in this part of Wales. Yes . . . it's been a while coming, but these things do take considerable time, especially when having to consider the effect on other services, and talking with the relevant LTAs. My only reservation is with summer road traffics, and connecting allowances . . . but time will tell.
Takes considerable time, don't we know it. The buses have been parked up for 2 years nearly, the timetable was written 2 years ago (with all of the connections as it was already planned for the T2/T3 timetables to change). The tender went out 18 months ago. The service has been delayed multiple times due to various failings within TrawsCymru. 'Talking with the relevant LTAs', you mean the one single authority that it runs through! Gwynedd.
And despite all of that, the service is not only going to cost taxpayers the cost of this actual service but it will also cost an additional school (£30-£40k per year) because exactly as per the T2/T3, someone wants to create a pretty timetable using Excels click and drag function rather than accommodate passenger flows, in this case, schools. The Lloyds 3B timetable accommodated Ysgol Y Moelwyn flows. Blaenau will also lose a Sunday service as the 1S currently interworks onto the 37 so sadly that will be a service reduction. All so that people in an office in Pontypridd can make a pretty timetable with nice little connections in Porthmadog. We slate Arriva for their centralisation and yet here Gwynedd residents are having their timetables dictated to them by Pontypridd, 100 miles away, by people who can't accommodate normal passenger flows, can't accommodate school flows and can't make train connections work despite the literal point of TrawsCymru being to fill the gaps left in the train network and make it easy for people to connect between bus and train.
The cancellations of some Lloyds services next month look concerning but hopefully they are just changes from retender or something. Gwynedd are usually pretty good at putting up timetables, as are Lloyds, so we should see soon. I hope Lloyds haven't lost work as I consider them to be a quality operator.
Gwynedd put tenders out last month so it will be related to that.
https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=NOV457168. More info could be given but I'll wait until someone starts a Gwynedd or Lloyds thread.
Its a real contrast in Wales at the moment with cuts in lots of places due to lack of funding, but a gold-plated Trawscymru service on certain corridors with expensive electric buses and depots on routes not ideally suited to them (surely city routes would be better, more buses per depot, more time stationery and at slow speeds, scope to swap out if charge low, lower air quality etc) and also odd improvements in places like Wrexham.
Cuts to buses in Wales are due to the huge cuts in funding from the Welsh Govt. They are taking from private operators and councils to instead pump it into the TrawsCymru bus network. It's robbing Peter to pay Paul.
traws.cymru
