Wednesday 14 November 2012

Websites and service updates

First Cymru have recently announced some service alterations on their website


These are due to start on January 6th.

Stagecoach, as previously announced, are altering a few of their services to take place from December 1st. This is their service update page:


Note the amendment to service 120/130 is an old update, not the one to be implemented next month. So far, there's nothing to tell the public that a few services are due to change. Recently they added a 1600 service 172 from Aberdare but didn't mention a thing on their website. The current 244 timetable is showing as the one that will commence from Dec yet nothing alerting any users of the route to the fact that it is due to change. One beauty on that screenshot above is the introduction of the rail road ticket from Maerdy to Cardiff, which was added to their website the day after they introduced the ticket!

Credit to First Cymru, Cardiff Bus and Newport  Bus for always being on the ball with letting passengers know about updates to their services through their website. I can't say the same with regard Stagecoach, unfortunately.

Friday 9 November 2012

Stagecoach service changes

From Dec 1, services 120 and 130 are to be increased from half-hourly to every 20 minutes, meaning 3 buses an hour to Caerphilly from Pontypridd and the Rhondda and an every 10 minute service between Pontypridd and the Rhondda Fach.

Also, from that date, service 244 will be changed slightly. It will leave Pontypridd at 42 past the hour and Bridgend at 10 past. It will no longer serve the Royal Glamorgan hospital.

Thursday 8 November 2012

Another about fares

Here's a simple comparison of a few random bus journeys that I have discovered the fares for. Included are operator, journey, cost of single fare, distance as driven, and cost per mile. 


First Bridgend McArthurGlen £2.25 1.8 £1.25
First Bridgend Ynysawdre £2.75 3.1 £0.89
Stagecoach Aberdare Maerdy £3.40 5.2 £0.65
First Bridgend Kenfig Hill £3.45 7.2 £0.48
Stagecoach Tonyrefail Bridgend £5.00 11.5 £0.43
Edwards Pontypridd Talbot Green £3.55 9 £0.39
Stagecoach Aberdare Bridgend £7.00 24.9 £0.28
Stagecoach Mountain Ash Pontypridd £2.10 7.8 £0.27
Stagecoach Merthyr Tydfil Cardiff £4.90 25.1 £0.20
Newport Bus Newport Cardiff £2.00 16.3 £0.12


First Cymru don't come out of this all that well. Their single fares appear to cost more for the distance served than other operators. In the 2011 Welsh Bus Passenger Survey their fares were considered to be the least value for money. A single from Bridgend town centre to the nearby shopping outlet costs £2.25 for a journey of less than 2 miles, which is pretty ridiculous if you ask me. Maybe it's no surprise that a number of services have seen reductions in frequency from Bridgend, given that passengers are expected to come up with such high fares. Recently, First Cymru have said they aim to reduce the average of their fleet to 8 years old, which by my reckoning would involve replacing around 20% of their oldest buses with brand new. Lots of work to do there then.

An interesting stat is that it costs over £2 more to get from Aberdare to Bridgend (the single is actually £7.10 but a £7 explorer does the job) than it does to get from Merthyr to Cardiff, despite it being a slightly shorter journey. Competition is clearly the key here. Take a single from Mountain Ash to Pontypridd. There are half hourly trains available at £2.40. Then take a single from Aberdare to Maerdy which costs over 2½ times per mile the cost of the Mountain Ash - Ponty ticket. Is there any competition? No, of course not. Similarly, there's no competition between Tonyrefail and Bridgend, hence the high cost of that ticket. If Stagecoach applied their miles per £ rate for the Mountain Ash - Pontypridd ticket, a single would cost £5.10. Would anyone bother? I doubt it. More worrying is that if the same route was priced at First's Bridgend - McArthurGlen ticket, a single between Mount and Ponty would be a whopping £9.75!!

There are clearly many discrepancies in ticket prices and it would appear that operators are happy to charge what they like on routes where they have no competition. Maybe it's those routes that funds the cheaper routes where there is competition.