Worcester to Cardiff: The Long Way Round
(All the Way Around Wales)
Part Four
26 October 2024
ABOVE: Richard Bros YJ09 CWR is a VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar. It is seen in Haverfordwest Bus Station, having just completed a complicated run (see text below for explanation!) on Traws Cymru route T5 from Cardigan via Fishguard. All photos in this article were taken on Thursday 19 September 2024.
Porthmadog, in North West Wales, is stunning. I've just stayed over for the night, but am now wishing that I had taken an extra day here, so that I could ride the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways and revisit the weird and wonderful village of Portmeirion, the famous Italianite village that was used as "The Village" in the 1960s TV series "The Prisoner". (Not just buses in this blog, but tourist suggestions as well!)
This whole area is delightful, especially in the fair weather that I have been blessed with for the whole of this trip so far.
ABOVE: The platforms at Porthmadog Harbour's Ffestinog Railway Station are beautifully lit by the early morning sun. This view is taken from Britannia Terrace, looking broadly south-east.
Porthmadog (and its neighbouring town Tremadog) were founded by William Maddocks (1773-1828), a British politician and landowner best known for his activities as an agricultural improver in Gwynedd. The "madog" is named after Maddocks, and of course, it is a port town, hence Porthmadog.
ABOVE: One more view of Porthmadog, looking broadly north from Britannia Terrace, with the Harbour station behind me.
My first bus of the day is leaving from "Outside Australia". That's not quite as far away as it sounds, as "The Australia" is a public house on the High Street and the bus stop is ... erm ... outside it.
On the other side of the road is Porthmadog Park, and the bus stops on that side are "Park Stands" A, B & C. My bus stop is marked as D, but the large and clear departures information board outside the park completely ignores stop D.
ABOVE: The bus information screen in Porthmadog High Street covers the adjacent stops A, B & C but completely omits stop D opposite. On the right is CK73 ATU, a Yutong E12 electric bus on the 0750 departure of route T22 to Tremadog. The bus is operated by Llew Jones as part of the Traws Cymru network.
I'm about half-way through my convoluted drive around Wales (which started way back in Worcester). My intention today is to head all the way down the west coast. First stop is Aberystwyth, which means reacquainting myself with the Traws Cymru T2 service that I travelled from Bangor on yesterday (see Part Three).
This is a lengthy run - it's already been an hour and 25 minutes to get to Porthmadog from Bangor, and this morning's journey is going to take another two hours and 20 minutes.
The bus arrives at "The Australia" 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time of 0805 (and five minutes ahead of its scheduled arrival time here). It's pretty busy already - several passengers leave here but plenty of us are ready to take their place.
I am able to help the driver find my Traws Cymru Day Ticket on his machine, as it's on the same button as it was on the bus I joined in Chester yesterday! This is another 10.8m-long Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora, operated by Lloyds Coaches and in the red and silver Traws Cymru livery. The driver lets the engine run for the full 10 minutes that we are waiting here.
We leave with a busy load and it becomes clear very quickly that it's going to get busier. We head eastwards towards Minffordd, from where Portmeirion village is about a mile's walk. We soon turn broadly south and begin our long drive towards Aberystwyth. It's all very scenic here.
ABOVE: A typical bit of Welsh scenery on route T2. Not sure exactly where, but the timestamp puts us somewhere near Trawsfynydd.
We pass the decommissioned Trawsfynydd nuclear power station; the only one to have been built inland, which used cooling water from the adjacent Llyn Trawsfynydd reservoir.
We deviate from the main road (the A470 if you're interested) to call into Trawsfynydd village. It looks like we're at risk of being delayed here, as there's a coach ahead of us blocking the narrow road (looks like school transport - it's the right time of day). My driver gets out of the cab to check on the coach. But, as he heads back to us, the coach pulls off and we're on our way again.
By the time we reach the approaches to Dolgellau, we are getting very busy - not to a point where the bus is full, but most of the seats have gone. We cross the River Wnion into Dolgellau town centre.
ABOVE: A bus (that might belong to Lloyds Coaches, based on its silver livery with the Welsh dragon) is parked in Marian Mawr car park as we enter the town of Dolgellau
The bus needs to twist around the narrow town streets to reach the main stop in Eldon Square. Perhaps a 10.8-metre bus is the longest that one should risk trying to squeeze around streets like these?
ABOVE: Smithfield Street in Dolgellau, and we will squeeze up the road to the right to access Eldon Square (although the angle looks less severe on Google Streetview than it does in my picture here)
We lose the majority of the passengers in Dolgellau, some of whom have been with me all the way from Porthmadog; a couple of them at least were already on the bus when I boarded. There are a number of new passengers joining, but not in the quantities of those who have left.
There's lots of Welsh being spoken here, including by the bus driver. Obviously I can't dip in on these conversations!
The T3 bus (Wrexham to Barmouth) that we met in Corwen passes through here, although there isn't one in evidence this morning. I do want to visit Barmouth properly one day (I've been through it on the train), but I'm bypassing it on this occasion, as it may feature in a future journey that I'm planning.
My T2 is on its way again, on time at 0902. We're soon heading south again, through unspoilt countryside. The mountain peaks stand out all around us.
We reach the town of Machynlleth. This is the other end of the T12 route that I caught from Newtown to Wrexham (all bus roads round here seem to lead towards Wrexham)!
We first met Owain Glyndŵr in Corwen (in Part Three), and Machynlleth was the seat of his Welsh Parliament, which has led to claims that this small town of 2,235 people is the "ancient capital of Wales".
For me, the highlight of the town has always been the Town Clock. The foundation stone was laid in 1874. The tower was made mostly of stone from Tremadog, near Porthmadog, complemented by red sandstone from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. It stands 24 metres high, to the base of the weathervane (information from History Points.org). It's imposible to photograph from a bus, but you can see it here.
We're now on the home strait towards Aberystwyth, heading along the busy A487. Not far out of Machynlleth is the Morben Isaf Holiday Park, overseen, night and day, by this magnificent eagle:
It's somewhere round here, I think, that we pass under a low bridge that would preclude the use of double-deckers on this route. And double-deckers are surely needed - the bus is getting very busy again by the time we reach Aberystwyth bus station, five minutes ahead of schedule at 1020. The whole journey from Bangor is scheduled to take three hours and 55 minutes (although this particular journey originated in Caernarvon at 0705).
ABOVE: Lloyds Coaches BV24 LMU reaches Aberystwyth Bus Station, at the end of its long run on route T2.
Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, Aberystwyth means "the mouth of the [River] Ystwyth". It's a university town and also a major tourist spot in mid-Wales. The National Library of Wales, based here, holds over 6.5 million books and periodicals, as well as the largest collection of portraits, maps and photographic images in Wales.
The imposing Railway Station is close to the Bus Station. As someone recently pointed out on Twitter / X, the station sign shows its name in both its English and Welsh forms, as is a requirement in Wales, and won't let a little thing like the fact that they are spelt identically get in the way!
ABOVE: The Aberystwyth station building, with the bilingual Aberystwyth Aberystwyth sign just visible in the background (and enlarged, top right inset)
The seafront is nice in the morning autumn sunshine, but it isn't, for me anyway, in the same league as some of the coastal sights I have already experienced on this trip, such as Bangor or Porthmadog.
ABOVE: Aberystwyth sea front and pier
After a bit of a wander, I'm back at the Bus Station. This is where I get a good reminder that there are still many, many routes that I won't know about unless I stumble across them. One such discovery is loading up now - route X47 which will push across large swaythes of mid-Wales on its way to Llandrindod Wells.
ABOVE: Celtic Travel 4 (BN68 XTC) is another Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora. It is seen loading in Aberystwyth Bus Station, on route X47 towards Llandrindod Wells. A route for me to try one day...?
I'm heading out on the Traws Cymru T5 service towards Haverfordwest. Operated by Richards Brothers of Cardigan, this is a service of two halves. Quite literally - there are no through services to Haverfordwest and one can only reach as far as Cardigan directly from here.
The bus arrives at 1100 from its incoming journey. A wheelchair is pushed off the bus carefully, with the driver seemingly seeing no need to deploy the ramp. The bus isn't due out until 1110 so the driver wanders off for a stretch.
He returns at 1115. My ticket correctly scans this time, as it does throughout the day (after yesterday's failures, I hadn't expected that). With around 20 passengers to load, we finally set off at 1121, 11 minutes late.
This is a little concerning, as my potential connection time in Cardigan is 10 minutes. However, it is made very clear in a number of places that there is "no guaranteed connection at Cardigan Finch Square due to traffic", so the second bus will not be held if this one doesn't make up the time. Clear enough, if not particularly customer-friendly.
ABOVE: SE64 JAE is an Optare Solo of Evans Coaches of Tregaron (about 14 miles south-east of Aberystwyth). It is working route 585 from Lampeter, and is seen at the Morrisons store on the Parc y Llyn Retail Park in Aberystwyth
This bus is an Optare Metrocity in green and white TrawsCymru colours. As a 15-reg vehicle, it has none of what I would call the 'mod cons', apart from a TV screen. This doesn't flash up route or next stop information; rather it is presenting Traws Cymru COVID-19 messages, such as "wear your face covering", "avoid busy periods" and "keep to social distancing measures". Honestly, it's 2024 now; surely these messages can be switched off?
This route gets close to the west coast, and there are some clear views over Cardigan Bay.
ABOVE: Looking across Cardigan Bay from Aberarth.
For me, it feels like we have now crossed from the northern half of Wales into the southern half. Does that have any bearing on my journey? Probably not at this stage. I'm more than halfway, but there is a lot of ground to cover yet.
We reach Aberaeron and stand for a minute or two, despite still being late. The name of the town is Welsh for "mouth of the [river] Aeron". It is derived from the Middle Welsh aer, meaning "slaughter", which gave its name to Aeron, believed by some to have been a Welsh god of war (information from Wikipedia).
We have only made up three minutes of the lost time as we leave Aberaeron, eight minutes late, at 1200. The timetable says there is 63 minutes still to cover; the non-connecting bus leaves at 1305.
And that's exactly what it takes - 63 minutes to cover the remaining ground into Cardigan, with little more for me to note along the way. It's been a nice ride - busy again, with plenty of people making local journeys as well as the longer-distance ones. We have arrived right up behind the non-connecting bus, with two minutes in hand.
ABOVE: Richards Bros YJ15 AWR, an Optare Metrocity, has just reached Finch Square in Cardigan, the terminus of the northern section of roue T5 from Aberystwyth.
However, rather than rush to the bus that will take me onwards, I decide to have an hour's break here and take advantage of the fact that there's another departure of the T5 due at 1405 (the frequency varies between hourly and two-hourly, with departures at 0655, 0905, 1005, 1105, 1305, 1405, 1515 and 1720, but nothing at 0805, 1205 or 1605-ish).
Cardigan is an anglicisation of the Welsh Ceredigion, meaning "Ceredig's land". Ceredig was supposedly one of the sons of Cunedda Wledig, who, according to Welsh legend, invaded from the north to recover lands in Roman Britain from invading Irishmen after the fall of the Roman Empire (information from Wikipedia).
Geographically, the town sits on the tidal reach of the River Teifi. Having been in the county of Ceredigion since a few miles south-west of Machynlleth, we're now edging towards Pembrokeshire, which we will enter as soon as we leave town.
ABOVE: Looking westwards along the River Teifi in Cardigan
It's while I'm double-checking the departure time of my next trip that I spot something odd in the timetable. The 1305 service takes one hour and 21 minutes to get to Haverfordwest, as does the 1515 departure. But the 1405 will take one hour and 56 minutes. Why the difference?
ABOVE: Richards Bros YJ55 BKE is an Optare Tempo. In green and white Traws Cymru branding, with additional branding for the T5 service, the bus is seen in Finch Square in Cardigan. The tower of St Mary's Church can be seen behind. Branding is in Welsh on this side of the vehicle, and in English on the opposite side.
It is a schoolday service (the equivalent school holiday service takes half an hour less). So it sounds as though we might be going on a detour somewhere, although no such detour is marked in the timetable.
But a more detailed study shows that the bus is due to arrive in Fishguard at 1445 and leave at 1520. The bus surely isn't going to just sit there for 35 minutes, is it? Seemingly it is - it is advertised as a through journey, both in Traws Cymru publicity and on BusTimes.org. How odd!
ABOVE: Extract from the Traws Cymru timetable for route T5
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ABOVE: From BusTimes.org
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There's only one way to resolve this conundrum - catch the bus and see what happens!
The bus arrives in good time. It's an 09-reg VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar, in red and silver Traws Cymru colours. There's a sizeable queue, but this isn't the bus that most of them want, and we leave with just four passengers on board. We won't get beyond six passengers at once at any point on this trip. Tellingly, the bus is labelled for "Fishguard".
Unlike the T12 (Wrexham - Newtown - Machynlleth), where the two sections are operated by different companies, the two parts of the T5 are both run by Richard Bros (separate contracts, perhaps)?
It's a straight-forward run, mainly down country lanes and, although we're close to the sea, we don't see much of it until the last few miles, when the bus comes right down to sea level to pass through Lower Fishguard ("Lower Town"), where we also squeeze through some impossibly tight streets.
ABOVE: Crossing the River Gwaun in Lower Town, Fishguard
Once through Lower Town, we ascend to the centre of Fishguard itself ("Main Town"), where the bus terminates - and it does terminate, despite what the timetable implies - at the Fford yr Efail, a "Bus Station" that is actually just a lay-by off a one-way system; in turn, off the High Street.
The bus, now marked "Not in Service", heads off somewhere in a hurry!
I hadn't been planning to stop in Fishguard, but here I am. The English name Fishguard derives from the Old Norse Fiskigarðr, meaning "fish catching enclosure". Lower Fishguard developed as a herring fishery and port, trading with Ireland, Bristol and Liverpool. In the late 18th century, it had 50 coasting vessels, and exported oats and salt herring (information from Wikipedia).
The view from the Main Town to Lower Town and the Harbour is spectacular:
ABOVE: Fishguard Harbour, Lower Town, as seen from near the Gorsedd Circle, off Penslade
After a short wander, I'm back in the "Bus Station", where the service back to Cardigan is waiting. This one is scheduled to stand for 23 minutes here on Schooldays, but, unlike mine, it appears to be doing exactly that.
ABOVE: Richard Bros BV21 ORA, a Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora, awaits its 1525 departure time from Fishguard's Bus Station
I'm now awaiting my 1520 departure to Haverfordwest. Worryingly, the departures board here is suggesting that the next bus isn't until 1550.
But some of the information on the board looks dubious anyway. There's no such thing as the "T5s" for a start - I wonder if the S is someone's internal code for "south", meaning the southern half of the route?
A woman, with a toddler in a pushchair, asks me if I am going to St David's. She has been told that the next bus there is at 1700, and that the 1600 service listed on the display no longer runs (and, apparently, a service due at 1500 didn't show). Unfortunately, I have no idea, and she wanders off with her child, declaring that she "may as well enjoy the sunshine" if she's going to be stuck in Fishguard for another hour-and-a-half.
I hope that 1700 bus turned up for them. My subsequent checks suggest that there should have been a bus at 1600; the 404 is a seasonal service, but it reportedly will have run until the end of September, and it's only September 19th. The "Strumble Shuttle" (Strumble Head is a few miles to the north-west of Fishguard) will be back in May 2025, apparently - the timetable is already available on the Pembrokeshire County Council website. As to the 1500, well there's a T11 service that runs at that time on Saturdays and in School Holidays, but not on Schooldays.
(I might have missed a trick. I could have caught the T11 via St David's to Haverfordwest, instead of going straight to Haverfordwest on the T5. But it would have made me much, much later finishing the day, so the T11 must wait for another opportunity...)
As 1520 comes and goes, my bus does not. At 1525, the Cardigan service departs. What if the departure board is correct and the bus isn't due for another 25 minutes?
Finally, near 1530, the T5 towards Haverfordwest arrives. It's the same bus I vacated three-quarters of an hour earlier, and the same driver. But the bus is now full of schoolchildren - about 25 of them. I expct them to get off, but they don't. This would appear to be a 'closed-door' school service that merges with a scheduled bus service here.
They're not too badly behaved - there's a bit of larking around by some who are standing near the front door, but it goes unremarked by the driver. A lot of the youngsters leave after a few stops but a small group remain all the way to the end of the line.
We pass down a road marked "Private Road - Proceed at your own risk", and I wonder what happens if anyone drives down who shouldn't be there!
We reach Haverfordwest at 1605, 10 minutes later than scheduled. This means I have lost the chance of a quick connection into my final planned bus of the day - the 381 to Tenby, which should have left at 1602. The next one is almost an hour away, so another tea break beckons.
ABOVE: The Old Bridge, Haverfordwest, looking south along the Western Cleddau (river), with the Library on the right.
I return to the Bus Station 10 minutes before the bus is due out. My 381 bus is scheduled to leave from stand 4. But where is stand 4? There only seem to be three stands, numbered 1 to 3. I check various online information. Google Streetview confirms the location, but it doesn't look the same in reality as it does on the screen:
Stand 4, and many other stands, are somewhere underneath this building site. Stand 4, as it was, doesn't currently exist.
So is there a temporary stand 4 somewhere - beyond stands 1 to 3, or perhaps on the other side of the roundabout outside the bus station? I have less than 10 minutes in hand. Where will the 381 be leaving from?
TO BE CONTINUED...
BELOW: An approximation of the journey described above, with key towns and cities marked for context
