100 BRITISH BUS ROUTES: ROUTE 63
Talbot Green to Porthcawl
6 August 2023
ABOVE: First Cymru 49010 (YJ13 HMX), an Optare Versa, passes Porthcawl Police Station in John Street, at the start of its long run to Talbot Green. All photos in this article were taken on Friday 10th February 2023.
Operator: First Cymru
Runs: Daily, but with only a very limited evening service
No Sunday service between Talbot Green and Bridgend
Weekday frequency: Hourly (Talbot Green to Bridgend) / every 20 minutes (Bridgend to Porthcawl)
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: Eight buses
Off-peak journey time: Approx. 115 minutes
Estimated route length: 26-30 miles
Runs: Daily, but with only a very limited evening service
No Sunday service between Talbot Green and Bridgend
Weekday frequency: Hourly (Talbot Green to Bridgend) / every 20 minutes (Bridgend to Porthcawl)
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: Eight buses
Off-peak journey time: Approx. 115 minutes
Estimated route length: 26-30 miles
I must confess, I had never heard of Talbot Green until a year or so back, when I was researching possible bus rides in South East Wales. Sitting just under 10 miles to the north-west of Cardiff, Talbot Green is in the valleys - at the mouth of the Ely Valley to be precise.
It's quite a mountainous area. The sources (plural) of the River Ely lie to the north in Tonyrefail; itself a stepping stone to Tonypandy, a town in the Rhondda Valley. The river flows through the grounds of the Royal Glamorgan Hospital before passing Talbot Green on its way to the coast at Penarth, near Cardiff.
Immediately to the east, the neighbouring town of Llantrisant (home of the Royal Mint) is 565 feet above sea level - probably at the top of the hills that we can see from Talbot Green's Bus Station:
It's quite a mountainous area. The sources (plural) of the River Ely lie to the north in Tonyrefail; itself a stepping stone to Tonypandy, a town in the Rhondda Valley. The river flows through the grounds of the Royal Glamorgan Hospital before passing Talbot Green on its way to the coast at Penarth, near Cardiff.
Immediately to the east, the neighbouring town of Llantrisant (home of the Royal Mint) is 565 feet above sea level - probably at the top of the hills that we can see from Talbot Green's Bus Station:
ABOVE: Looking east from Talbot Green towards Llantrisant. This is very similar to a picture I used in my Route 100 article (http://busestopdeck.co.uk/100.html), but isn't quite the same one. I try not to reuse any photos that I have already featured but, to be honest, I used all my best pictures of Talbot Green in the aforementioned article.
I have arrived here via another of the routes in my 100 British Bus Routes series: Route 100 from Pontypridd. Whilst that is a relatively short trip of about eight miles, this is going to be a much more substantial run, to Porthcawl on the coast, almost 15 miles from here as the crow flies.
This end of the route offers an hourly service, and what will become the 1035 departure arrives in good time from its incoming journey.
It's a small bus station, basic but functional - four stands with shelters, and the other essential facilities are also available. But it's a chilly morning and I'm glad to be able to board after hanging around for about half an hour.
ABOVE: First Cymru 49010 (YJ13 HMX), an Optare Versa, pulls into Talbot Green bus station at the end / start of its journey on route 63. You get a second bus in this photo as well, if you look carefully... On the left, almost hidden behind the shelter, you can see Stagecoach South Wales 26091 (YX66 WHV), an ADL Enviro200MMC, on route 122 (Cardiff to Tonypandy).
We are off on time with seven passengers on board. The bus is an Optare Versa in the local "Bridgend & County" livery used by First Cymru for services in this area. It's smartly-presented and reasonably comfortable (bit of a draft - not sure where from as none of the windows are open). But the bus gives a smooth run; not bad for a vehicle coming up towards its tenth birthday.
There's a big retail estate just adjacent to the bus station, but we go in the opposite direction, down the traditional-looking main shopping street (Talbot Road) and on past some equally-traditional terraced houses.
As we move to the main road that will speed us out of town, we cross what looks like a railway track, clearly disused for years but still embedded in the road. This might be connected to an old track bed from Pontyclun, where maps clearly suggest an abandoned railway alignment turning towards Talbot Green. I haven't been able to positively identify it as such, although there is plenty of talk online about abandoned rail routes in this area.
Talking of Pontyclun, we are soon heading into that particular area, steering from a southerly heading to a more south-westerly one. Pontyclun means "bridge [over] the River Clun"; the Clun is a tributary of the River Ely that we are still sticking closely to, although we will shortly part company.
Classified as a village, Pontyclun has a small town feel about it and has reportedly been expanding over recent years as people spill out from Cardiff. There's a lovely sales board outside a flower shop on Cowbridge Road:
Soon after, we pass Pontyclun Park:
We have now come to Llanharry, another "village" that looks more like a small town. There's an official War Memorial here, but my attention is caught by this bench, just a hundred yards further on from the Memorial:
From here we turn north again, and are briefly in open country en route to Llanharan (I wonder whether people ever confuse it with Llanharry)? Llanharan is described as a village but looks... No, I won't say it a third time! (What's the difference anyway?)
There's a fine-looking public house called "High Corner" in Llanharan, sadly reported as no longer trading, and up for sale as I write this.
At this point we are less than 2.5 miles west of Talbot Green, but we've been going for 18 minutes, having covered around five miles along three sides of a square, to get this far!
From here it's a more straight-forward drive through Brynna and Pencoed towards Coychurch. Trade is steady and the passenger load is building.
ABOVE: The problem with single-decker buses is the challenge of taking photos of services running in the opposite direction. This feeble attempt to capture a fellow Optare Versa on route 63 was taken in Penybont Road in Pencoed; the building alongside, with its impressive walls, houses Peppino's Pizza restaurant.
My regular reader will know that I appreciate a lovely-looking church, and I spot this one in Coychurch - the Parish Church of Saint Crallo:
We pass through Brackla, a suburb of Bridgend. By the outskirts of town, we have around 25 passengers on board. All bar me and one other person leave the bus in the town centre, or at the bus station.
The bus station itself is a modern facility with eight 'saw-tooth' stands on one side and three traditional stops around the other sides. There's not a huge amount going on here at this particular moment, though. As we pull in there isn't a single bus on any of the saw-tooth stands.
ABOVE: A deserted Bridgend bus station, apart from a couple of intending passengers.
After a few minutes we are pulling out again, and one other bus has at least turned up to keep us company:
ABOVE: As we reverse off the stand to continue to Porthcawl, First Cymru's 44602 (YX14 RUC), an Enviro200, has pulled in at the end of a journey on route 70 from Cymmer - a route that I have previous experience of (see https://busestopdeckarchive.co.uk/?p=3573).
The bus station stands adjacent to the Ogmore River and has fast access to the major road across the town, the Rotary International Way, although the section immediately next to us is known as the Boulevard De Villenave D'Ornon, a lovely bit of traditional Welsh there, presumably. (Actually, of course, it's French, recognising that Bridgend is twinned with Villenave-d'Ornon, near Bordeaux in South West France.)
This is a journey of two distinct halves for a number of reasons. As well as being the major traffic objective on the route, Bridgend is also the point where additional buses increase the service from hourly to every 20 minutes. And, on this particular February morning, it is also, sadly, the point where the pleasant but cold sunshine gives way to torrential rain.
From here, Porthcawl is 5.5 miles to the south-west, but the 63 leaves Bridgend on a northerly heading. Part of this choice of routing is to enable the bus to stop near the Bridgend Designer Outlet (80 shops), two miles to the north of the town (and adjacent to the M4 motorway, near the Sarn services).
I remember visiting the Outlet back in about 2010, when on holiday in Porthcawl. We managed to squeeze into what seemed to be the last parking space on the site, at about 11am, and the KFC had run out of chicken, which seemed like quite an inconvenient product for a chicken restaurant to have run out of - Lord Sugar would not be impressed...
It's again around 11am, and again the car park is a mass of vehicles. No customers on or off here for a mere bus, though.
Once clear of this immediate area, the journey becomes much more rural for a few miles. We're staying stubbornly just to the north of the M4 motorway, having crossed it just after the Designer Outlet. We need to get back across if we're going to get to the coast!
Cefn Cross is the first settlement for some miles, and the bus starts to get busy again. There's quite a community feel amongst some of the passengers who board round here - they all know one another so the ride is an opportunity to catch up.
Cefn Cross rolls seamlessly into Cefn Cribwr, a village that feels more like ... well you get the idea.
There's a striking War Memorial here that I manage to capture an image of. The circle of stones appears to be part of the memorial, rather than of a more ancient structure:
We come to the village of Pyle, described as a large village, but...
It's far more built up now and one can't tell when Pyle ends and North Cornelly begins. We take a brief detour to get closer into the large residential area of this ... erm ... village, before finally heading south down the Porthcawl Road.
ABOVE: One of the residential areas of (I think) North Cornelly, although I haven't been able to pinpoint the exact location of this image.
We pass under the M4 and continue on the final leg of our journey. The bus is busy again now, and we reach the Town Centre terminus in John Street really quite suddenly.
Historically part of Glamorgan and situated on a low limestone headland on the South Wales coast, overlooking the Bristol Channel, Porthcawl developed as a coal port during the 19th century (source: Wikipedia), but its trade today is largely tourist-based, with a large Victorian promenade on the seafront (which I completely fail to photograph).
I suspect the tourism aspect may be one reason for the 20-minute frequency on route 63 from Bridgend, although not the only reason, as even an off-peak journey on a cold, wet Friday morning in February has been pretty busy, and there are lots of residential areas for this bus to call into.
ABOVE: Journey's end: Optare Versa 49010 again, at the John Street, Porthcawl terminus of route 63.
As my Versa pulls out again on the return trip to Talbot Green, I exchange a cheery wave with the driver as I take one last picture (this article's title picture).
I've thoroughly enjoyed this near-two hour drive across South Wales, and, if you're in the area, you might too. It might be 15 miles as the crow flies, but I reckon this meandering, snake-like journey has been anything up to twice that length.
But it's a lovely slice of life across the South Wales valleys; more built-up than one might expect, and, as we have seen, full of villages that seem determined to out-grow that description.
Technically, a town needs "fixed boundaries and a local government" (source: Grammarly), which these villages don't have. Conversely, a village is a "a small community in a rural area", and I'm not sure all of that fits either! At least they have the 63 to get them around.