Is Your Journey Really Necessary?

I had an email from Transport for Wales earlier this week, outlining their new measures to tackle the plague. They've also published some 'activities' for schoolchildren who are stuck at home – puzzles, word searches, colouring sheets (design your own livery for a train) … that sort of thing. One that caught my eye was an invitation to draw your ideal railway network on a blank map of Wales. It really is a blank map, as well. None of the cities or major towns are marked, so the housebound kids have only an outline of the country to work from. The biggest irony is that Wales did have a pretty decent railway network once upon a time. A century ago, in fact. Have a look at this outline map of South Wales, which I found online. https://images.app.goo.gl/VXTxGwNH7VrEp5RW9 And that's only the area which will be (mostly) covered by the South Wales Metro and its Swansea Bay counterpart. (Assuming the money doesn't run out once the European funding dries up, of course.) I...

One aspect of public transport I've yet to mention is one of the oldest surviving modes: the taxi. I've decided to tackle this issue for a couple of reasons, which I'll discuss in more detail below. Even though we've come a long way from the era of the hansom cab (invented in 1843), the basic principle remains the same as it did in Victorian times. Let's take a secenario from one of Conan Doyle's famous stories: a bloke sits around in Baker Street in a black horse-drawn vehicle, chain-smoking, chatting to the other drivers, drinking tea and reading a paper. Suddenly Holmes throws open the door of the vehicle, leaps inside and shouts, 'Whitechapel, my good man – and ride like the wind!' The driver has done The Knowledge, of course, so finding his way through the foggy streets isn't a problem. Holmes pays him when they reach their destination and goes off in search of whichever ne'er-do-well he's pursuing. Meanwhile, the driver presumably sit...

A friend of mine has recently moved from Aberdare to Talbot Green. I haven't been there for ages, but I do know that it's pretty much at the centre of a large (and growing) area encompassing Llantrisant (old and new), Pontyclun, Beddau, Ty Nant, and the surrounding villages and large new-build estates. It's a couple of bus stops from the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, so there's a 'direct' bus route from Pontypridd to Bridgend, serving the hospital during the day. Situated just off the M4 and twenty minutes from Cardiff by train, Talbot Green Bus Station and Pontyclun Railway Station should be ideal transport hubs. Should … I've been investigating various ways for my friend and I to meet up and have the occasional break from the Valleys routine. I'll go into my findings about the buses another time. For this entry, though, I want to highlight the situation facing rail passengers travelling to and from Pontyclun. Technically speaking, Pontyclun forms part of...

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 m...

On my birthday three years ago, I was making my regular visit to London when the front page of the Western Mail caught my eye in Cardiff. I can't remember the exact headline , but it seemed that a committee of the Welsh Assembly had recommended an Oyster-style card covering the whole of Wales. The first thing that came into my head was 'What a good idea!' As a frequent visitor to London, I'd found out just how efficiently the Oyster card allows you to travel around the city. I'd also found out how much money it can save you over a period of time. (Or even a single day, when you compare it to the Travelcard.) I bought the paper and read the full story on the coach. The second thing that came into my head was 'What a stupid idea!' You see, the contrast between London and Wales couldn't be more apparent. Greater London is pretty much one continuous, flattish, dense urban sprawl covering over 1,500 square kilometres. It's criss-crossed by dozens of...

Next week I'm planning a day trip to Bristol, and I need to be a short distance outside the city centre by 12.30 p.m. Considering that Bristol Temple Meads lies on a direct route from Cardiff Central, that should be a piece of piss. Shouldn't it? You might think that – I couldn't possibly comment. To make sure I'm where I need to be in good time (and even that isn't guaranteed, of course), I'll have to arrive at Temple Meads at 1119. That gives me ample time to catch the bus to Bedminster and find the right place. (Any later and it'll be cutting things too fine.) So that puts me on the 1030 departure from Cardiff Central. And here's the problem. To get to Cardiff Central in time for 1030, I'd have to catch the 0922 train from Aberdare – eight minutes before the off-peak fares kick in. (According to raileasy.trainsplit.com I'd have to catch the 0852. I don't know whether they allow a margin of error for changing platforms.) Either wa...

Let me explain … Some years ago, when I first got into the Observer 's fiendish Azed crossword, one of the clues was 'Tonite, in an FM special, the newsroom variety show'. I must have had a moment of inspiration, because I realised that the first four words of the clue were an anagram of the solution: INFOTAINMENT. Anyway, this is a media word for the media itself – the sort of blended news and feature items that make up a typical edition of The One Show . I mention it here, because I spotted a poster on a Transport for Wales train last Monday. It shows their timeline of proposed improvements over the next five years or so. One of these highlights is 'free infotainment'. At which point my blood ran cold. Having spent a lot of time on Cardiff buses in the last fifteen years or so, I have a horrible feeling that the content will probably involve live streaming of the BBC News channel. You see, I think I must have missed the announcement in the papers when...

I spotted this picture in Aberdare Library, and thought I'd share it with you. Could this be the Spring 2019 advertising campaign for Transport for Wales? Or is it a bit optimistic?

Yesterday evening I switched on Radio 4's PM to be shocked by the first thing I heard. The Indian government has announced plans to build a bullet train , capable of reaching over 200 mph, with help from the Japanese. Operating between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, the project is expected to be completed in just five years' time. It was this shock headline that's forced me to issue this public apology to the Indian government today. Several times in this blog I've referred to Wales as having 'a Third World' public transport system. In the light of the news from India yesterday, it seems that it's nowhere near that good. Sorry to anyone living in the developing industrial nations for any offence I may have caused.  

I know I've discussed this subject several times already, but I'm going to revisit it with good reason. Over the past couple of weeks, new bus stop indicators have been erected on routes in and around Aberdare. The main reason for the change seems to be that the new signs include up-to-date contact details for Traveline Cymru. Here are the old and new signs from the same location – outside Aberdare Library – so you can see the difference for yourselves.             I think the new signs look much clearer than the old ones, some of which were really starting to show their age. In addition, they no longer list services like the X55 (Aberdare to Swansea) which were discontinued the best part of a decade ago. But there's a snag. Have a look at the whole signpost. Have you spotted it yet? Yeah, you've got it – there's nowhere for the timetable(s) to be displayed. On the old stands (or a fair percentage of them, at least), there was a rectangular panel at approxi...

I received an email this morning from the Office of Rail and Road. They were following up my 'recent'(-ish) complaint against Arriva Trains Wales (see I Don't Like Thursdays and We Apologise For the Late Running of This Refund ). The eight-week time lag between action and reaction seems to be the new industry benchmark, judging from today's date. Anyway, the ORR sent me a little market research survey to fill in, rating my experience of dealing with Arriva following the Replacement Bus Service fuck-up in early  October. You won't be surprised to learn that I rated them pretty poorly overall. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. On 3 January, I went to Aberdare station at the crack of dawn on a bitterly cold morning to single-handedly promote Action for Rail Day. (Two of the lads I'd invited to join me were working that day; the other was laid up with gastric flu.) It was part of an ongoing campaign organised by the TUC, and supported by a couple of dozen...

I was reading the  Wales on Sunday when I came across an item about the Plaid Cymru conference in Llangollen. The party's leader, Leanne Wood, had given her keynote speech, and among the topics she covered the South Wales Metro got a mention. Leanne and I discussed this briefly at a public meeting in Mountain Ash, back in the early spring. She'd come up to talk about the party and outline its vision for the future shape of Wales. During the Q&A session afterwards, I put my hand up . Cerith Griffiths, our former Westminster candidate and (at the time) Assembly candidate, spotted me and invited me to speak. I started off by saying, 'I'm sure there'd be a lot more people here tonight if every bus in the Cynon Valley didn't disappear at six o'clock.' That got a laugh from everyone, so it was a good start. I went on to outline the plight of people working outside the Cynon Valley, arriving back in Aberdare or Mountain Ash in the Twilight Zone, and then h...

When you live in South Wales - that's when. Yesterday afternoon I spotted this lovely little cartoon on Facebook: I found it especially amusing because if you read 1802 as a time on the 24-hour clock, it translates as 6.02 p.m. In the Cynon Valley, and presumably other areas of the Valleys as well, 6.00 p.m. is pretty much the point at which all bus services cease, apart on from the key routes. You don't need a city boy living in New York, or a country girl from Arkansas for this story to be true. You just need to be a big town boy living in Aberdare, or a country girl living in Penderyn, and the love story ends there. Right there. If it wasn't so pathetic, it would actually be funny, wouldn't it?

This week's edition of the Cynon Valley Leader carries two interesting transport-related stories. The first is good news. The upgrade of the Severn Tunnel to support electric trains is due to be completed on time – next weekend, in fact. There's still a lot of work to be done until the first Twentieth Century ( not a typo) trains actually glide into Cardiff Central, of course, but it's a step in the right direction. The second story concerns the South Wales Metro scheme, which I've written about extensively already. According to a piece by Sion Barry (originally published last week, but only now filtering through to the 'locals'), four companies have been shortlisted for the bidding process to build the infrastructure. As usual, the story is accompanied by the map of the proposed network. However, it's occurred to me recently that there seems to be one massive, glaring omission from the whole scheme. The place I've got in mind isn't a tourist attr...

In April, Stagecoach in South Wales announced that weekly tickets would no longer be issued from the machine, as has been standard practice pretty much since buses were invented. Instead, their customers were notified about 'smartcards', which would replace the ancient Chinese technology they've got used to. I don't often buy a ticket for more than a day at a time, but I'm working on a project which has taken me the length and breadth of the Cynon Valley since Sunday. It made sense to buy a Megarider. At only £11.70 for a week, it was going to be far most cost-effective than buying several daily tickets. Thus I added their smartcard to my growing collection. I've had Cardiff Bus's iff card since they were launched. I've only used it a few times, though. As you can only top it up on the day of travel – in a small number of city centre locations – or on the bus itself, it seems to be a bit of a half-arsed effort. I was expecting it to be something like th...