What are they smoking at Transport for Wales? They have to be on something. Seriously.
TfW is launching a public consultation on proposals for a potential new express north to south Wales coach service that would cut bus journey times between Bangor and Carmarthen by 90 minutes.
The proposed express-stop service would call at key town centres and railway stations along Wales' western coast, including Caernarfon, Porthmadog, Dolgellau, Machynlleth, and Aberystwyth.
With an expected journey time of 4 hours 45 minutes, the service is “being proposed to provide a faster, more convenient travel option for tourists and university students, while improving connections between communities along the western corridor”, TfW said.
Current public transport journey time between Bangor and Carmarthen is approximately 6 hours 20 minutes.
The service would initially operate with diesel coaches before transitioning to electric vehicles.
And yep, it all sounds great on paper. Everything TfW plans sounds good on paper. You know, like hourly train service on the Cambrian Line. irThat’s been on paper for the past decade. And we all know how that’s worked out.
So too are those swanky trains promised by the tall foreheads down in Cardiff. Guess what? We’re still waiting. And when they come, they’ll have fewer seats than the current cattle wagons they squeeze us onto.
We’ve told TfW time and time again that the new trains are useless on the Cambrian line.
They don’t listen.
Maybe they’ll listen when we tell them that they’re off their rocker if they think there’s going to be an express bus service. Do they know our roads? How bad they are? What they’re like in summer?
How about fixing our current bus services and restoring the buses lost out over the past three years through their timetable reorganisation?
TfW have simply messed around with our buses, making it virtually impossible for anyone to get to work on their services, or to plan hospital appointments. They couldn’t organise a party in a brewery.
That big void in the middle of the bus map of Wales? We live here. And we know how bad buses and trains are.