RHODRI CLARK returned to the constituency of Wales’s transport minister on 12 July to see how local bus stops have fared since he surveyed them last year and was less than impressed by his findings
In June 2018, I surveyed 11 bus stops in Ruabon and Chirk – in the constituency of Welsh transport minister Ken Skates – and found the timetable poster cases empty or displaying out of date and misleading information. In July this year, the main difference at most stops was that the 2014 timetable posters were now a year older.
However, things have moved on at Ruabon’s bus-rail interchange, created with Welsh government funding by regional transport consortium Taith (six local authorities) before Taith’s unexpected abolition by the Welsh government in 2014.
Ruabon is the nearest railhead for travel to the major tourist town of Llangollen, but last year there was nothing to indicate that the bus stop outside the railway station was still in use – and Arriva Trains Wales’s station information posters told passengers the nearest bus stop was on the main road, 100m away.
Since then, a new rail franchise has been procured by Transport for Wales, a company wholly owned by the Welsh government.
The government has re…
