Please Read Caerphilly

This kinda forms a supplement to my previous entry. That outlined the difficulties posed by having so many different transport operators in South-east Wales, and no overall structure to make ticketing easy and affordable.

My friend and I are planning a trip to Caerphilly Castle (weather permitting, of course). Problem: find the cheapest way of doing it.

You see, we'd initially have to pay to get from beyond Aberdare to Caerphilly – by bus and/or train – and then pay to get into the castle. Not cheap, as you'll see from the tables below. But luckily for us, I know the area quite well as I've travelled it extensively over the last forty years. I know bus routes have changed – and timetables and fares have certainly changed – but the basic framework is still there. I also get newsletters from the public transport providers, so I get to hear about their special offers. Summer is always a good time for these because it's tourist season. The real trick is to combine as many offers as possible. That can involve a little bit of research and not a small amount of lateral thinking.

There were a number of ways of doing it, and I think I've found a nice one. It's a bit time-consuming, but (as I keep pointing out) travelling across the region by any mode of public transport is inevitably going to be time-consuming.

Here's how the costs would have stacked up by conventional means:

By train

Beyond Aberdare to Aberdare	£2.50 return (at least)
Aberdare to Caerphilly (rail)	£8.40 return
Caerphilly Castle	£8.90 adult
Total	≥ £19.80

By bus

Stagecoach All Zones Dayrider	£8.70
Caerphilly Castle	£8.90 adult
Total	£17.60

Please bear in mind that those are the figures for one of us. There'll be two of us. That takes the total to £35.20 if we go by bus, and at least £39.60 if we use both bus and train. Factor in lunch and other odds and ends while we're there, and it's becoming an expensive day out. There's also a Stagecoach price increase in the pipeline, so the second total will go up in a couple of weeks.

This is where the special offers come in.

Stagecoach South Wales currently sell a 2Gether ticket (geddit?), allowing two adults to travel across their network for £10.00. By meeting at a central point near our homes and catching a bus to Aberdare, my friend and I can grab a 2Gether ticket. We can get to Pontypridd by bus, then travel on to Caerphilly. That's an improvement. But we'd still need to pay £8.90 each to get into the castle. Total: £27.80. Close, but no cigar.

So, here's the next offer. Transport for Wales currently have a deal with Cadw, the body that looks after historic buildings in Wales. Tourists get two for one entry to their properties if they hold 'a train ticket valid for a relevant journey when they visit any of the listed paid staffed Cadw sites … The train ticket must be valid for that day. This can include season valid season tickets, returns, open returns, weekly passes, rovers and rangers, carnet/multiflex and off peak. Tickets displayed on mobile devices and retail receipts will also be accepted'.

Well, that sounds good, doesn't it? Get a train from Aberdare to Cardiff and Bob's your uncle. Two return tickets at £8.40 each, then £8.90 gets us into the castle. Total cost: £25.70. Oh, hang on … We're still paying bus fare to get to and from Aberdare. The price just went back up by at least a fiver.

I was outlining this to my friend on Monday afternoon when inspiration dawned. We'd need valid train tickets 'for a relevant journey' – in other words, tickets that get us to Caerphilly. Here's where my knowledge of the public transport labyrinth came in handy.

'Here's a plan,' I said. 'Bus from Aberdare to Pontypridd, then bus to Caerphilly. If we get off at Aber station, we can buy singles to Caerphilly. Couple of quid each. Then we use them to get two for one at the castle.'

It sounds long-winded, but it's probably comparable with travelling all the way to Cardiff and then out to Caerphilly. And here's the cost breakdown for the pair of us:

Beyond Aberdare to Aber (bus)	£10.00
Aber to Caerphilly (train)	£4.40
Caerphilly Castle	£8.90
Total	£23.30

If we do this (and it involves only minor buggering around), we shave nearly £17 off the most expensive option. Not to be sniffed at, is it?

Of course, you have to be in the know to cook up a scheme like this. And that isn't easy to achieve. You'd need a pretty decent knowledge of the regional public transport 'system' (I use the word in its loosest sense) to work out the optimum route. And while that information is in the public domain, it's far from freely available. You'd have to spend ages on Traveline Cymru or operators' websites to try and put the pieces together.

You'd also have to be in the loop with the various special offers. How many tourists would have known about them?

Finally, you'd have to juggle different modes to get the best deal. With no overall body to look after public transport in Wales, these different modes prefer to act in competition, rather than co-operating for the benefit of the passengers. (Sorry – customers.)

By combining these three factors, I think I've probably found the best method for our planned day out. It took me some working out, but I got there in the end.

If anyone can think of an even cheaper way for two people to do exactly the same expedition – travelling from beyond Aberdare to Caerphilly, and getting into the castle – please feel free to leave a comment. Please don't say something like 'hide in the toilet on the train'. For one thing, that would defeat the object of the exercise – which is to actually buy a ticket for once.

On the other hand, I always love to hear from anyone who knows legal ways of saving money on public transport. We already pay far more than passengers in other countries for comparable journeys. For instance, that single journey between Aber and Caerphilly – two minutes, according to the timetable – costs £2.20. For £1.50, you can catch a bus right across London. And if you use your Oyster card on a second bus within an hour of boarding the first, you don't pay at all. Is it just me, or is something rotten in the state of Wales?

I'll report back after our day trip and let you know how everything panned out. Watch this space …