This is the second part of my examination of the bus routes in and around Hirwaun, Aberdare, Mountain Ash and Abercynon, which I started with The Last Bus From the Cynon Valley . For this entry and a forthcoming one, I want to look at the buses which run purely within the Cynon Valley – although, in spite of the best efforts of the operators, the local authority, and the Welsh Government to put a stop to this unreasonable behaviour, a couple of them still manage to stray into the neighbouring districts. What can you do, eh…? Figure 1 shows most of the area in question, sandwiched between the Merthyr and Rhondda Valleys: [caption id="attachment_12057" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Figure 1: The Cynon Valley and surrounding areas[/caption] The main axis lies roughly north-south between Hirwaun and Abercynon. I've already dealt with the buses which run between Aberdare and Pontypridd/Cardiff, covering the southern part of that stretch. To recap brie...
About a month ago, Stagecoach in South Wales – part of the UK's largest bus operator – announced that they would be closing their depot at Brynmawr in Gwent. 77 jobs are at risk following this decision, which Stagecoach have attributed to the cut in Welsh Government subsidies. The company are also dropping fourteen services and reducing the frequency of another eight. In a statement on the BBC Wales News website, the company's managing director John Gould said: Make no mistake, ultimate responsibility for the loss of bus services and jobs lies firmly at the door of the Welsh government following years of cuts to bus investment. We deeply regret the impact this will have on our customers and local communities. Instead of protecting and supporting bus travel, ministers' misguided decisions have dealt a body blow to the country's public transport network and wider economy. People across Wales have repeatedly warned the government about the consequences of their actions, bu...
My brother used to work as a cartographic draughtsman for a number of public bodies. In fact, we used to joke that if anyone was ever digging up the ground anywhere in Wales (and a fair chunk of Western England), there was a good chance that he'd drawn up the plans beforehand. One useful piece of jargon I picked up from his career was 'desire line.' You've probably all come across desire lines, but I expect very few of you ever realised that they had a name. According to Wikipedia (because I'm at home, and I haven't got access to any textbooks on Town and Country Planning): desire path (also known as a desire line , social trail , goat track or bootleg trail ) can be a path created as a consequence of foot or bicycle traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination. The width of the path and its erosion are indicators of the amount of use the path receives. Desire paths emerge as shortcuts where...
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