I’m Stranded in Denbigh – Get Me Out of Here! A Summer Trip into North-East Wales (part two of two)

​23 November 2021
ABOVE: Arriva Wales 4538 (CX14 BXY) working route X51 on Thursday 3rd June 2021.

I’m standing in Denbigh High Street. I broke my journey from Rhyl to Wrexham 50 minutes earlier, and I’m back at the bus stop. The next bus is due in 10 minutes. Earlier than expected, a bus suddenly comes into view. I have already hailed it down before I realise that it’s labelled for Rhyl. Has the driver forgotten to reset the display?

Yes, he is going to Rhyl and no, I’m not at the right stop; I need to be on the other side of the road, apparently. As he heads off, I wonder how I can possibly be at the wrong stop. I had left the previous service from this stop; all I am going to do is continue my journey. Perhaps the X51 has more than one route into the town?

The driver should know best, so I cross the road. The first bus through is one of the little Fflecsi demand-responsive buses that operate in various parts of Wales. The second bus is a service to Rhyl. It’s the same bus that I greeted on the other side of the road and suddenly everything becomes clear – buses do a double-run into and out of Denbigh!

Now that I have understood that, I know that the driver had advised me to cross the road in case the bus to Wrexham was ahead of his, doing the turn-around. So well done that driver!

One of the problems here is that there are NO timetables or maps in the stops. In fact, this seems to be the norm right across the county of Denbighshire. Every stop seems to have a timetable panel, it’s just that none of them actually have anything in them! With a timetable / map, I would have been able to work out what was going on, and to quickly establish that my route operated a double-run through the town.

As a few minutes have passed, I know that it’s unlikely that the bus has gone, and I start looking back up the road behind me, towards the fine Library building (complete with clock and bell) that forms a centrepiece of this rather lovely High Street.

And the bus is due. And then a few more minutes have passed and the bus has not arrived. Then a few more. Still nothing.

Do I have the right departure time? The services I have seen on this route, and those I have used, have all tallied with the times shown on Traveline.

Google Maps offers alleged ‘real-time’ departure details and confirms the timing, but also notes that the bus “left seven minutes ago”! Could I somehow have not seen it? Could it have skipped its double-run?

But Google Maps is not really ‘real-time’. Not here anyway. I look for some genuine real-time advice, or a service update, on the Arriva website, but I can’t find anything. Thoughts turn to the next bus to Rhyl, now only 10 minutes away.

Should I retrace my steps? I don’t really want to. What other routes might be available? I would normally look at the bus stop timetables and maps for that, but…

Just as I’ve settled on the idea that I need to go back to Rhyl, the X51 for Wrexham finally turns up on the other side of the road and then heads off to what I hope is the turning point. I keenly cross my fingers that the advice from the Rhyl driver, and the assumptions I have subsequently made, are correct. They are – two minutes later, the bus pulls up on my side of the road.

Despite the delay, I am the only passenger boarding here, and there aren’t many on the bus either. We set off 21 minutes late. A handful of passengers board at the next stop and one of them sits in the other front seat on the top deck.

A couple of minutes later, the bus completes its double-run and turns away from the Rhyl Road. This prompts my fellow passenger to ask if the bus is going to Rhyl? I tell him it’s going to Wrexham. “Oh, bother”, he says (well he uses a different word but that’s the general thrust).

I feel sorry for him, as it’s a bit of a trek before we get to the next bus stop and, as the bus pulls up to drop him off, the Rhyl bus passes on the other side of the road. I think he will have to wait an hour, or walk back into Denbigh from where there’s a half-hourly service to Rhyl.

If I had gone back to Rhyl I would have missed one of the most beautiful, scenic rides imaginable. We drive down lovely rural country lanes and pass through beautiful towns and villages. Hills (maybe they’re mountains) provide amazing scenic views and we’re over 1000 feet above sea level. We reach the village of Bwlchgwyn, which claims to be the highest village in Wales, although it may not be…

There’s another double-run off the Wrexham Road into a little village (the name of which escapes me). This double-run requires the bus to reverse into a narrow road to turn around. The late-running of our bus means that it meets one going the other way in this tiny village; the other bus has blocked the reversal road and is parked up awaiting its departure time.

Fortunately, our driver knows the area and ventures fifty yards further into the village, to find another road to reverse into. By the time he gets back to the designated turning point the other bus has just pulled out and we run in convoy back to the main road. More lovely hills and country lanes until we reach Wrexham, about 15 minutes late. The driver loads up immediately for his next trip and is gone before I have even found the stop in the Bus Station for my next trip.

If I was collating a list of the Top 10 scenic bus rides in Britain (and maybe I will one day), the X51 would have to be on it. All that confusion and self-doubt in Denbigh was well worth it!

Meanwhile, there’s a modern, smart double-decker waiting to take me back into England on route 1 to Chester. A nice ride, but not quite in the same league as the one that has gone before. It’s mid-afternoon now, but there are very few people on this particular journey. A wander and a cuppa in Chester, then the Merseyrail back to my hotel.
​
Quite a day out! Over 100 miles by bus, I reckon. And, in case you read Part One and you’re wondering, I caught the 84 to Crewe two days later.