Across South Wales in the Heat: Part 1
20 August 2022
ABOVE: First Cymru 67092 (YX65 RHZ), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, pulls out of Neath Bus Station en route for Swansea. All photos in this article were taken on Thursday 11th August 2022.
It’s a hot day. A very hot day; the start of an ‘Amber warning for heat’ kind of day. The kind of day when being outdoors continuously may not be the wisest approach. But I’m on leave, and it’s all in the name of ‘research’ anyway!
The departure board on platform 3 at Cardiff Central is indicating that the 0842 service to Swansea, a 10-car train, is the next train. But there’s a little two-car unit standing in the middle of the platform, showing no signs of going anywhere. A three-car train pulls into the adjacent platform 4 with a terminating service that also shows little sign of moving immediately.
It’s a good demonstration of the delicate balance of a busy railway station with lots of conflicting movements. It also demonstrates how the length of a train doesn’t matter – it will still take up a path whether it’s one car or 10 (and there are still one-car trains running here).
I’m taking the quick way to Swansea so that I can make a long trip back to Cardiff by bus. My train is diverted at the last minute to platform 4, where the terminating service has just got out of the way in time. The train on platform 3 remains there, stubbornly awaiting a green signal.
The journey is quiet, and reaches Swansea on time. It’s pleasing to see a prominent electronic board outside Swansea station showing where to catch the local buses, and the timings of forthcoming services.
The bus station is quite a stroll from here, but I want to see it anyway so I walk across the City Centre, wondering where Swansea’s vibrancy is. I believe Swansea is quite economically-disadvantaged and (snobbery alert!) that reflects itself in the group of drinkers I find gathered on a bench outside the entrance to the bus station. It’s 10am.
ABOVE: Swansea Bus Station
It’s a large bus station with 20+ stands. There’s a departure board showing the next 20 departures, but even that isn’t sufficient to get beyond those services due in the next 10 minutes or so.
I’m looking for route 34 to Neath. The 34, run by First Cymru, doubles up as the service to the local Park & Ride at Landore (one of two such facilities for Swansea). There’s a quarter-hourly service to Landore and half-hourly the rest of the way to Neath.
There’s an old Dennis Dart parked on stand E – the stand for my departure – labelled “Private”. Is this to become my number 34?
No. The 34 pulls onto stand G. It’s a smart, branded, Enviro 200 MMC. The driver is familiar with the Day Ticket that I want (which isn’t always the case).
At the moment of our on-time departure, a driver moves to the bus on stand E and starts loading up with passengers. It is still labelled “Private”, so what service is it, and how are non-regulars supposed to know?
We leave with two passengers on board, and nearly pick up a third, who wants the service that officially leaves from stand G (due five minutes after we leave).
On the outskirts of town we take a detour along a bus-only road that seems to bypass most of the likely traffic objectives in the vicinity. Presumably this is to speed up the service for Park-and-Riders, but that shows one of the perils of mixing up Park-and-Ride services with regular ones.
The route passes under a very tight low bridge before serving the Park-and-Ride (no passengers on or off). Just beyond we come to the Swansea City Football Club Stadium, and shortly after that to a major retail centre, although there is no obvious dedicated bus stop for this.
ABOVE: Swansea Stadium
This is a route I have partly used before, in order to visit the Richard Ley Conference Centre in Llansamlet – about a mile’s walk from the nearest point of the 34. On that occasion I had planned to travel from Neath by bus, but a delayed train scuppered that and I ended up standing on a slow train all the way from Cardiff, with the only saving grace being that it actually stopped at Llansamlet station, thus putting me in walking distance of my destination and saving me having to get back out from Swansea.
The Richard Ley Centre is part of a large commercial / office area, bounded by a road called Blawd Road. There must be loads of commuters coming into the area, but the buses all skirt around the edge (Blawd Road does not have any bus services at all). An opportunity missed?
We’re picking up a few passengers along the way and there are a number of local journeys being undertaken. At the Star Inn, Llansamlet, a woman boards, with her small child, and undertakes her fare transaction (a cash payment) with the driver, without ever breaking off from the phone call that is underway at the time.
It’s all very industrial, but there is a hint of the stunning countryside in the distance, in front of us as we pass through the main street of Skewen. I try to take a photograph through the front window of the bus, but I should know by now that it’s impossible to do that on a single-decker.
In no time at all we’re in Neath, where buses do a full four sides of the very well-kept Victoria Gardens in order to access the bus station.
ABOVE: Victoria Gardens, Neath. The bus station is just out of sight to the left.
The shape of the stands, and the accompanying infrastructure, mean that it’s not an easy place to get front-profile bus photos from (true for many bus stations of course, but it feels more pronounced here), and I have to wait for arrivals and departures to get decent snaps.
ABOVE: Neath Bus Station
Roger French visited Neath a few weeks before me and gave a thorough review of the services on offer, which, as with all his articles, is well worth a read.
After a hot half-hour, I’m now heading onwards via First’s 87 service to Port Talbot. The bus arrives a few minutes before departure and the driver takes a stretch break, returning just on departure time.
ABOVE: First Cymru 44589 (YX63 ZVG), an ADL Enviro200, arrives at Neath Bus Station after a run on route 87 from Port Talbot.
The route doesn’t seem to be especially loved by the operator. The previous 87, which I had to let go in order to get a decent photo of a 34, was a Streetlight WF, branded as “metro”. Mine is an unbranded Enviro E200, and there are also at least two double-deckers out.
There’s an annoying “Free Wi-Fi” sticker right across my window.
We leave, a few minutes late, with around 12 passengers on board, but four alight just a few minutes out. There’s plenty of churn on this busy service, justifying its 20-minute frequency.
There’s nothing except a road sign to tell us that we have left Neath and entered Briton Ferry. The 87 digs deep into the various estates (residential and industrial) that line the area. I’m passing a lot of signs pointing to the “Town Centre” without being certain which Town Centre (Neath, Briton, Port Talbot) is being referenced.
One striking industrial area is the Baglan Energy Park, “one of Wales’ premier business and industrial locations” according to its website. It is “helping transform the area, secure a green industrial future and create thousands of jobs”.
Several of the bus stops along the route are unloved, and many do not carry timetables. This is illustrated best at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, where there’s a bus stop / shelter right outside the main entrance (which is an excellent location). But, whilst the hospital looks modern and clean, the bus shelter is filthy with peeling paint. I can’t tell, from the bus, whether there is a timetable panel or whether the panel has anything useful to tell.
ABOVE: Unloved bus shelter outside Neath Port Talbot Hospital
It’s 44 minutes from Neath over to Port Talbot. The 87 will continue for another 10 minutes down the road to Margam.
Port Talbot bus station is also unloved, with weeds growing out of the concrete at the stands, tatty timetable displays and some information signs that don’t quite ring true.
ABOVE: Port Talbot Bus Station – note the weeds. The vehicle on the left is 44589 on route 87 again (I have just arrived from Neath on it), and the one in the centre is similar 44591 (YX63 LHK). Note also the “Free Wi-Fi” signage across all of the First vehicles. It doesn’t look too bad here but the inside effect is shown above.
ABOVE: Port Talbot Bus Station
For example, stand 7 advertises an X3 to Swansea and an 85 to Porthcawl. I can’t find evidence of the existence of either. (I can find the 85 on this 2019 online document from First Cymru (still online in 2022), and there is an X3 to Maesteg – the opposite direction – but that starts here.)
Printed timetable information is not well-presented either.
ABOVE: Port Talbot Bus Station’s timetable information needs some TLC
To be fair, there are two electronic “next departure” boards, and the information on those seems to be accurate. But it’s a poor impression overall.
Before pushing on to Bridgend, I’m taking a detour via Maesteg, a few miles inland, on the hourly First route X3. This is a brisk run (25 minutes), so I assume only one bus is needed to run the service.
An Enviro 300 turns up roughly on departure time and has to use stand 8 because stand 7 is by now occupied by another service (one that I think is scheduled to be there but I’ve struggled to prove it after the fact)!
ABOVE: First 67435 (SL63 GBX), an Enviro300, pulls out of Maesteg on the hourly, one-bus X3 to Port Talbot.
We’re quickly on our way with nine passengers. One stop later, we’re entering another bus station – clearly a more modern one, and in a much better state. This is a bus station to service the railway station opposite. Apart from a few bus drivers, there’s no-one about. With the bright, hot sunshine and the strange sculpture at the entrance, there’s something of a Mediterranean feel to this place.
ABOVE: The ‘other’ Bus Station in Port Talbot, adjacent to Port Talbot Parkway railway station. The railway station itself is out of shot to the right; the bridge provides access.
We pull in for a driver change. The new driver pulls off the stand and then stops in the middle of the bus station road to tap his details into the ticket machine.
Although Port Talbot itself is heavily industrial and not especially affluent, it does look stunning as the bus pulls out of the town and starts a steep ascent inland. As we climb, you can see right across the town, to the bay and then across to the coastline of The Mumbles. This bus ride is worth it for this view alone!
ABOVE: Looking across Port Talbot (foreground), with Swansea Bay and The Mumbles visible in the distance.
I can remember experiencing something similar in either Madeira or Lanzarote (can’t recall which), and there’s also an amazing series of views to be had climbing out of Brig in Switzerland. I know you will know of numerous other examples, but the rate of ascent here is something special. (It’s probably the hot weather, giving the continental feel, that is making me nostalgic for my trips into Europe!)
The scenery continues to dazzle as we lose sight of Port Talbot and continue our ascent into the countryside.
It’s only seven miles from Port Talbot to Maesteg. Most of the people who joined in Port Talbot have travelled the whole way to Maesteg, or at least to its environs. The small bus station adjoins the Town Hall; the latter is hidden beneath an array of scaffolding. The X3 picks up a decent load for the return trip to Port Talbot. It doesn’t hang about.
There’s a church opposite the bus station that carries 1859 as a construction date but also shows an 1847-1947 centenary commemoration.
ABOVE: Maesteg Central Church, built 1859 (or possibly 1847)
The bus station is designed such that each pair of the six bays share one bus shelter, with a bay number on each end. My next bus, on First route 70 to Bridgend, is due to leave bay 3 at 1340 – just moments away. Right on cue, it turns up. It has a Welsh word on the display which I take to be the Welsh equivalent of Bridgend or Maesteg, as bilingual signage is obviously popular here. (I know that doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny, what with Maesteg being a Welsh word anyway, but these things are considered in a split second!)
The bus pulls in, not on stand 3, but on stand 2. Not sure why, but it’s a small bus station and there’s no chance of anybody missing their bus.
I board and, because I am using a Day Ticket, I don’t need to state my destination. When I sit down, another 70 pulls in onto the adjacent stand. It only picks up two people and then it’s gone. The other bus is going to Bridgend.
This is when I realise I am not on the bus I was intending to be on, and that it doesn’t start and finish here but goes on somewhere else. So I’m not heading for Bridgend, but in the opposite direction entirely.
But where on earth are we heading? And how easily will I be able to get out of there again?
To be continued…