On Trains & Buses

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Wales: Trunk Services

Reading time: 7 minutes.

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Listed here are trunk bus services operating across Wales, helping you travel longer distances between towns, cities and regions throughout the principality. Since the establishment of the Welsh Assembly, there has been a deliberate effort to develop an interurban network under the TrawsCymru brand to complement gaps in the railway system. Even then, not every trunk route is within that network, as this growing collation shows.

Unlike express networks in other countries, these Welsh trunk services typically use low-floor buses rather than coaches. Many routes offer valuable access to walking country and scenic areas, from the Ogwen Valley and lower Conwy Valley in North Wales to the former spa towns of mid-Wales. Several routes connect with railway stations (such as Bangor and Llandudno Junction), making them accessible to train travellers and extending the reach of the rail network.

5/5C/5D/X5: Llandudno - Bangor - Caernarfon

On Sundays, the service frequency may be hourly, but it is impressively more regular for this North Wales coastal bus service. Apart from the Bangor-Caernarfon leg, it shadows the railway for much of its route too. Saying that, you have more of a chance of getting a regular service from places like Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr if you make use of the bus option. For some reason, I have yet to do exactly that, and I cannot pin down exactly why. In my case, it has been travelling between Bangor and Caernarfon that has been the cause of my using it in the past.

5/5C/5D/X5 Timetable

12/X12: Rhyl - Abergele - Old Colwyn - Colwyn Bay - Penrhyn Bay - Llandudno

Recent experiences of overcrowding on trains running in North Wales have had me wondering about alternatives, and this service could be part of that. The Sunday frequency is half-hourly, but this increases to five buses an hour for much of the day on other days of the week. In short, this is a frequent service and has a total journey time of less than ninety minutes.

12/X12 Timetable

19: Llandudno - Llanrwst - Betws-y-Coed

The lower Conwy Valley may not strike you as a place from which to enter open hill country, but you’d be very wrong. Places like Dolgarrog and Tal-y-Bont are useful starting points for hikes towards the Carneddau and other hills, once you haul yourself up the steep wooded slopes for the first 200 metres or so of height. Being able to catch these buses from Llandudno Junction station means that train travellers can use them too. All that’s needed is to keep an eye on timetables for any eccentricities.

19 Timetable

T2: Aberystwyth - Dolgellau - Porthmadog - Bangor

This is the replacement for the erstwhile X32 that once was operated exclusively by Arriva. The Monday to Saturday frequency is down from what it was but the Sunday and bank holiday service offering remains largely as it was before though. This is another part of the TrawsCymru network that has yet to reach its full potential, though vehicles were well-used when I last tried it.

T2 Timetable

T3: Wrexham - Bala - Dolgellau - Barmouth

Now replicating a journey that was once possible by rail, this useful bus route is one that I have travelled quite a few times. Once, it was numbered X94 and has been in the hands of several operators of the years. After Arriva closed its Dolgellau depot, the route fell to GHA until its collapse and Lloyds Coaches are now involved in its operation.

One year during the Arriva days, the Monday to Saturday service frequency became hourly. However, demand appears not to have matched this since it was reduced. Consequently, you need to keep an eye on the timetable nowadays. That especially applies to the Sunday service since there are five each way journeys a day. For all its travails, this TrawsCymru route remains, and it serves places that otherwise would be disconnected.

That the countryside appeals to walkers adds to the appeal of the area and Barmouth is a seaside resort too. That would explain how I travelled on a full bus from Wrexham to Dolgellau where a throng awaited an already busy bus on what was a hot sunny day. Many may have been escaping scorching inland temperatures, by the looks of things.

T3 Timetable

T4: Newtown - Llandrindod Wells - Brecon - Merthyr Tydfil

This started out in life as the 704 between Newtown and Brecon but the T4 replaced it and extended the route south as far as Merthyr Tydfil to replace the now withdrawn 470. The frequency of the Monday to Saturday service is somewhere between hourly and two-hourly depending on the time of day and where you need to go. The Sunday service is even less frequent with the southern terminus being Merthyr Tydfil instead of Cardiff.

T4 Timetable

T5: Aberystwyth - Aberaeron - New Quay - Cardigan - Fishguard - Haverfordwest

This route recalls a journey I undertook on the way back from Pembrokeshire after an elongated weekend there in June 2006. Then, you needed to use two bus services with the 412 running between Haverfordwest and Cardigan. The T5 replaces this and offers Sunday journeys during the summer season alongside its year-round Monday to Saturday hourly services. This addition to the Trawscymru network in 2014 gets folk to parts of coastal Pembrokeshire, thus earning its place here.

T5 Timetable

T6: Brecon - Sennybridge - Ystradgynlais - Neath - Swansea

This is a newer part of the TrawsCymru network that replaces the preceding X63 and X64, and it operates seven days a week too, not a feature of what came before it. It also serves the western reaches of the Brecon Beacons National Park and there are early evening journeys allow days of decent length around the Fforest Fawr. The Sunday service level offers at least five each way journeys and the frequency is nearly hourly on other days of the week too.

T6 Timetable

T10: Bangor - Bethesda - Betws-y-Coed - Corwen

Usefully for a bus service that gets you to the Ogwen Valley, this route has Bangor’s train station as one of its termini, so you can use it for onward travel. There are other connections with bus routes T3 and T8 at Corwen, which make it even more useful. Seven-day service is available even if the Sunday frequency is four-hourly over the part of the route between Betws-y-Coed and Corwen. Otherwise, the service frequency is next to two-hourly, and that applies to the whole route from Monday to Saturday.

T10 Timetable

X4: Cardiff - Pontypridd - Merthyr Tydfil

Between Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff, this connects with the T4 to extend that route corridor. Though there is a wait between any connections, it helps that the service frequency is hourly from morning until early evening.

X4 Timetable

X43: Abergavenny - Brecon

The old X43 that linked Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil and Brecon seven days a week with extensions to Abergavenny on every day apart from Sunday is no more. The new shortened X43 is operated by Williams Coaches under contract to Bws Powys. Near hourly service Monday to Saturday frequencies are not shoddy either, and there are five journeys in each direction on Sundays too.

X43 Timetable

X47: Llanidloes - Llangurig - Rhayader - Llandrindod Wells

Rhayader’s proximity to the human-altered Elan Valley was what first drew my attention to the place and, given my liking for wilder spots, that may appear strange but some of mankind’s constructions can blend with the landscape. Its proximity to Llandrindod Wells on the Heart of Wales railway line makes a visit possible with the help of this bus service. Like many in the area, it is a Monday to Saturday affair and offers a largely two-hourly timetable from early morning until early evening.

X47 Timetable

X51: Wrexham - Coedpoeth - Llandegla - Ruthin - Denbigh

This service gives a decent travel option for anyone wishing to get around northeast Wales. Frequencies on Sundays and bank holidays may be much less than those on other days of the week, but they remain useful with a largely hourly daytime service. What interests me about the route is the access that they could offer to quality walking country. For instance, Llandegla is on the Offa’s Dyke Path national trail and I would like to walk north from there into the Clwydian Range sometime.

X51 Timetable

X75: Aberystwyth - Ponterwyd - Llangurig - Llanidloes - Newtown

When I embarked on two walks that took in the top of Pumlumon Fawr, this service may have had its uses, though the bus network changes a lot in these parts. Then, I thought it was a Monday to Saturday affair, only for a Sunday timetable to come to my notice more recently. It may be that accessibility without recourse to a car is improving in what is a very quiet part of Wales.

X75 Monday to Saturday Timetable

X75 Sunday Timetable