Transport consultant David Blainey is conducting a strategic review of the TrawsCymru network to help the Welsh government set a budget for the services for 2020-25. He is due to present recommendations to ministers in October. He was previously a Flintshire County Council transport officer and later operations director at Warrington’s Own Buses.
Additional TrawsCymru routes have emerged in the past 12 months, primarily in Powys and Pembrokeshire. There are now many inconsistencies, including the T9 Cardiff Airport-Cardiff shuttle being branded as TrawsCymru, which otherwise denotes long and predominantly rural routes.
In 2017 the Welsh government said TrawsCymru typically serves corridors ‘which do not have a rail service’. The new T12 connects Machynlleth with Newtown, Welshpool and Wrexham – all of which are served by Transport for Wales rail services – while TrawsCymru continues to omit significant rural towns with no trains, including Llangefni, Ruthin, Denbigh, Mold, Monmouth and Cowbridge. The rural counties of Conwy and Anglesey remain entirely off the TrawsCymru map, while Herefordshire and Shropshire (in England) have been added to it.
The TrawsCymru Connect label is applied to the new T11 (…
