Great Western Coffee Shop

From another thread / another of our boards:


An interesting observation - quoted from a "lighter side" thread but no light topic as a genearllity.

Should a bus service from A to H provide a direct service or take extra time stopping at B, C, D, E, F, and G along the way?  And should it stop at the out-of-town interchange at F too?

It would appear that you have a single service doing two jobs - long distance and local. And you probably can't justify two buses based on income and passenger levels.  If you do some runs direct and others via all the little places, are both so infrequent that you create a service that no-one uses for that reason?

On rail connections / none at Harbour, does it serve Fishguard and Goodwick instead?  If so, Harbour would only be useful for Ferry connections.  In general, yes, bus / train connectios are a hugely useful facility, but perhaps not if they only offer a double back.

I'm on dangerous ground with West Wales as it's not my area, so I can only ask questions - but they're born from experiencing situations in our own area, and there are similarities which persuade me to think that there's an overall strategic discussion to be had.  I don't feel that overall public transport resources are made best use of in our own area - opportunities to increase overall passenger numbers and service offered at existing (or even reduced) resource and subsidy - are lost due to a variety of reasons. The reasons may be of the "didn't think of it" type, or of the "yes but although it would be in the general good it would cost MY company" type or of the "why bother" or "we would get hassle from a few for doing something for the many" or "would it actually work / don't know".  Some of the losses of apparent opportunities could be just apparemt with good reasons or legal / safety reasons.

I understand that most longer distance services A to H carry very few passengers from A to H, with most being intermediate journeys.

I also believe the route will be registered with the commissioner as several routes with the same route number.

The words 'stopping at' suggest that B, C, D, E, F and G are on the route and you are asking whether the bus should run through them without stopping. For the avoidance of doubt, that's not what I'm refering to here, the buses in question would (I hope) always stop anywhere on route (provided it is safe to do so) if hailed by a passenger, even if not at a marked bus stop.

The points in question are towns/large villiages some distance off the direct road, and the question is whether a branded long-distance bus service should operate via those points.

That is indeed the question here. As I said in the original post, I think the general concept of the service looks sensible. The issue is that is branded and marketeted as a long-distance service, but the detours make it unattractive as such. 

I certainly suspect that is the case with the T5, since the via points generate alot of passengers but also carry a sizeable time penalty which will knock out most of the through traffic. Therefore, I do not think the single service number 'T5' is appropriate, since it isn't relevant to the majority of passengers who will be making intermediate journeys as you say.

That is a good question. Until 2010, the Aberystwyth - Cardigan leg was served by two services. The 550 was Aberystwyth - Aberaeron - New Quay - Aberporth - Cardigan and ran hourly between Aberystwyth and New Quay (actually Synod Inn, where the service rejoined the main road). South of Synod Inn the frequency was roughly every 2hrs. Alongside this was the X50, also roughly every 2hrs, which went direct from Cardigan to Aberaeron with 3 trips per day continuing to/from Aberystwyth (one of these through journeys is the one that still exists). The basic pattern was the same until Sept 2012, but in 2010 the Cardigan - Aberporth - Synod Inn part of 550 changed hands to a different operator so a change of bus was required at Synod Inn, which was dreadfully dangourous. Most places have a similar frequency now, except the reduction of the the direct Synod Inn - Aberaeron direct service to 1 each way, but the through journey options are different.

The Cardigan - Haverfordwest leg however has been this way for years, you would be reliant on through journeys if you had a direct service because the intermediate population if you avoid Fishguard is neglible. The subsidy required would probably be too high, but my opinion is that there is no benifit in running a through service to Haverfordwest unless you did that. Going via Fishguard, almost all through traffic to Haverfordwest from Cardigan is lost to you anyway so you might as well have any remaining such passengers change at Fishguard or Newport, which would allow the buses from Cardigan to go to Fishguard Harbour instead of Haverfordwest.

Technically yes, it does serve Fishguad & Goodwick. In practice though, it is not really useful. Given that the TOC's guarantee of providing a taxi if you miss a connection due to the fault of the railway doesn't apply to buses, you really need to allow 15-20 minutes for a connection, and in my view that just isn't acceptable at a station like Fishguard & Goodwick which has nothing more than the rail-industry standard enlarged bus shelter type thing. Fishguard Harbour on the other hand has an indoor waiting area and toilets, making it a much more sensible interchange station. Even if you don't agree with me about station facilities, the T5 bus timetable shows only one service from Cardigan in the morning, arriving 07:42 for the 07:53 train (not too bad I suppose). The only other service shown as stopping at the station is a 07:45 to Aberystwyth, which is only 7 minutes after the train arrives (not that it matters because that train only comes from Clarbeston Road and is essentially an ECS move). In addition there are services from Goodwick square to Newport (but not points north eg. Cardigan) at 18:40 and 20:32, with trains at 18:46 and 20:23. The rest of the day the T5 buses stay firmly on the main route at Fishguard and do not stray to Goodwick (where both Fishguard Harbour and Fishguard & Goodwick stations are located).

Indeed it is registered in sections (eg. Aberystwyth - Aberaeron, Cardigan - Fishguard). The various routes taken (eg. via Aberporth versus via the main road) however I think are included in a single registration.