TrawsCambria


TrawsCambria was a network of medium and long-distance express bus routes in Wales sponsored by the Welsh Government.
Since 2012 services have been provided by the updated TrawsCymru network.

History

Coach Network

TrawsCambria started in 1979 as the branded experimental coach service route 700 Cardiff to Bangor via Brecon, Builth Wells, Llandrindod Wells, Newtown, Machynlleth, Dolgellau, Porthmadog and Caernarfon.
The initial trial summer service operated Fridays to Mondays only with one coach in each direction on the 230-mile route, with walk-on fares. By August duplicate and triplicate operations occurred which resulted in the Welsh Office approving the continuation of the service through the winter.
The following spring saw the 700 route run daily, joined by 2 extra routes:
After 3 years, the 3-route network continued to run without any subsidy although daily operation on the 700 and 702 routes was cut to Friday-Monday in winter. Later the 702 route was withdrawn leaving only the 700 and 701 routes in operation.
The TrawsCambria name and the original red and green logo was a registered service mark jointly owned by National Welsh Omnibus Services of Cardiff and Crosville Motor Services of Chester. Traws, pronounced to rhyme with 'house', is the Welsh equivalent for 'cross' as in cross-country. Therefore, TrawsCambria was roughly equivalent to 'Cross-Cambria' or 'Trans-Cambria' in English.
In the 1980s, the 701 route was extended to cross the Menai Bridge to the Isle of Anglesey to reach Holyhead in North Wales. In South Wales an extension was introduced across the Severn Bridge to reach Bristol.
The 1986 privatisation of the National Bus Company subsidiaries resulted in the TrawsCambria routes becoming the responsibility of the newly formed Crosville Motor Services company. Several
route modifications and cut backs resulted during this period. While profits could be made most of the year, November and February low patronage always resulted in knife edge annual performance.
In the 1990s, Crosville Motor Services was split into separate English and Welsh companies which became Crosville Wales continued to run the service jointly with Rhondda Transport, with the main route being the 701 route which uniquely linked all the Welsh universities: Glamorgan, Cardiff, Swansea, Lampeter, Aberystwyth and Bangor.
By 2000, Crosville had become part of Arriva North West & Wales and Rhondda Transport became part of Stagecoach South Wales. Further changes resulted in the 701 route becoming the only remaining TrawsCambria route linking Holyhead and Bristol via Dolgellau, Aberystwyth, Carmarthen and Cardiff. This route was modified in the early 2000s, with the northern terminus changed to Llandudno and withdrawal of the Cardiff to Bristol extension.

Welsh Assembly Reshaping

Prior to and during 2005, the Welsh Assembly Government started to influence and recreate a renewed network, repositioning TrawsCambria in a new guise with shorter links with good frequencies, running with modern, high specification, low-floor buses. The first stage of this was the late 2004 withdrawal of the 701 north of Aberystwyth and creation of a new express X32 route in its place between Aberystwyth and Bangor.
While TrawsCambria was co-ordinated by the Welsh Assembly Government, the actual bus services are/were provided by a variety of private bus companies. The TrawsCambria livery was based on a common design, including TrawsCambria logos, but with the colours of the base livery selected by the operator running the service. A fleet of modern Optare Tempos were purchased for all but two of the routes, with different specifications for different routes. While not of express coach standard, some of these are significantly more comfortable than normal service buses.
With long-distance limited stop coaches being largely impractical for serving the dispersed population of Wales, the TrawsCambria network has evolved into a compromise solution between express coaches and regular service buses: it provides long-distance journey opportunities between Welsh towns while also catering for shorter-distance passenger flows along its route. Following on from the introduction of the X32 in October 2003, several additional routes were added and TrawsCambria evolved into a network of services.
The withdrawal of service 701 and introduction of the new low-floor bus fleet for the replacement Aberystwyth to Cardiff service sparked concerns and complaints about the suitability of a service bus for the four-hour journey. There was no on-board toilet, which did not make an ideal situation for such a distance. Toilet breaks would be frowned upon as they would interfere with the timetable. The X40 also did not accept concessionary travel passes for travel over the section south of Carmarthen. However some of the complaints, particularly those related to luggage space, may have been the result of Arriva Buses Wales using buses on Aberystwyth to Cardiff services other than the two specially equipped Optare Tempos ordered with Aberystwyth to Cardiff services in mind.

701 Revival

In 2007 a private company trading as Coach Travel Wales sought to compete for passengers with the X40, re-introducing service 701 as an Aberystwyth to Cardiff Bay via Aberaeron, Lampeter, Carmarthen, Swansea, Port Talbot and Cardiff service.
Initially this ran twice-weekly with one journey from Aberystwyth in the morning, returning from Cardiff in the afternoon. This service runs using coaches with toilets and concessionary passes are accepted along the whole route.
On 29 September 2013 was later taken over by Bryan's Coaches.
The service proved popular and that popularity has continued to increase. At its peak in 2013 it operated twice daily Monday-Saturday, except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.
In 2014 a new 750 service was established, running on Thursdays and Saturdays from Aberystwyth to Cardiff via New Quay, Llandysul, Carmarthen and Swansea. The service was less successful and was terminated in 2015.
In 2015, Bryan retired, and the 701 service transferred to Lewis's Coaches of Llanrhystud. The transfer of the service was the end of an era as George Bryan had been depot manager at Crosville's Aberystwyth depot when the service was introduced.
Lewis's Coaches started their operation of the service with former Green line coaches, equipped with wheelchair lifts thus introducing accessible vehicles to the service for the first time.
Lewis Coaches closed in 2016, and Ceredigion CC has issued an amendment to its online timetable confirming the cessation of service 701 from that date.

Attempted Relaunch As TrawsCymru

Following a Welsh Assembly Government consultation on improvements to the TrawsCambria network, in 2010, a programme of improvements for TrawsCambria services X40 and 704/T4 was announced. New buses were the main improvement identified. These would be equipped with coach style seating, greater luggage space, real time information and WiFi. The Welsh Assembly Government decided these upgraded routes, and eventually the network as a whole, were to be re-launched under the new TrawsCymru brand. As part of the re-branding, service X40 was to be re-numbered TC1 and T4 would have become TC4. The T4 upgrade and re-branding went ahead, but without the planned renumbering to TC4.

CymruExpress

However, before the contract for the TC1 service could be let, Arriva Buses Wales decided to cease operation of the TrawsCambria X40 and their section of the TrawsCambria 550 service from 26 February 2012. Instead they introduced their own services along the routes on a fully commercial basis, under the brand 'CymruExpress', meaning these routes no longer formed part of the TrawsCambria network. The CymruExpress services were:
  • Service 10: Aberystwyth to Swansea. This was additional to the hourly Carmarthen – Aberystwth service, unlike the former X40 service, but only operated on Fridays and Sundays during university term time. The service was withdrawn from 28 July 2013
  • Service 20: Aberystwyth to Cardiff. This was also additional to the hourly Carmarthen – Aberystwyth service and operated all week. When first introduced, unlike the former X40 services to Cardiff, it did not travel via Swansea. However, after service 10 was withdrawn the 20 was rerouted via Swansea.
  • Service 40: Aberystwyth to Carmarthen. Compared to the X40, early morning northbound journeys were cut drastically on Saturdays, with the first bus from Carmarthen not reaching Aberystwyth until 11:15. An improvement however was the introduction of a Sunday service of two trips each way. The initial timetable also promised that the journey time would be cut drastically. However, the service was not able to reliably keep to the timetable and the timings were later adjusted to be more realistic.
  • Service 50: Aberystwyth to Synod Inn via New Quay.
As part of the CymruExpress launch, Arriva returned the TrawsCambria Optare Tempos and replaced them with Wright Pulsars and a pair of Van Hool Alizée coaches. The Pulsars were initially planned to be an interim measure, until new Wright Eclipse Gemini double-deckers could be introduced in August 2012. However, these were never introduced. The decision to operate the CymruExpress routes commercially prevented the introduction of the TrawsCymru TC1 service.

Second Chance

Arriva later decided to close their Aberystwyth depot and related outstations. As such, all remaining CymruExpress services were withdrawn, with the last services running on 21 December 2013. With the commercial operation cancelled, the local councils and Welsh Government were once again able to subsidise bus services on the corridor, giving them a second chance to introduce a TrawsCymru service.
Initially, the local councils let interim contracts to maintain bus services in the area. One of these, a subsidised version of service 40, was jointly operated by First Cymru and Lewis Coaches. Service 50 was replaced by a new service titled X50 operated by Richards Brothers, also funded by the council. Both these interim services commenced operation on 23 December 2013. These interim contracts did not include any Sunday services, meaning that as of Sunday 15 December there were no Sunday bus services operating in Ceredigion. Neither of these contracts were for TrawsCymru services, but as interim services they were intended to run for approximately six months, until the Summer of 2014, whilst the Wales Government looked at options for the longer-term future of nationally strategic transport services.
It later emerged that a TrawsCymru service on the Aberystwyth – Carmarthen route would indeed finally be delivered. The original plan for the X40 to be renumbered as TC1 and receive six new Welsh Government owned Optare Tempo buses however was not to be. Instead, the new TrawsCymru service is known as the T1 and buses are provided by the operator, First Cymru, rather than the Welsh Government which has diverted the Tempos ordered for the TC1 to other routes. The T1 contract includes a limited Sunday service, and commenced on 3 August 2014.