In a move to increase route reliability and punctuality, leading South Wales transport provider, Adventure Travel, has announced schedule changes to their current bus routes in Swansea, Taff’s Well and Cardiff.
The rising volume of traffic compared to recent years coupled with the Welsh Government-initiated changeover 30mph to 20mph across Wales has had a significant impact on scheduled public transport providers and their schedules as they struggle to keep to their timings.
Adventure Travel is one of the foremost transport providers in South Wales, operating many bus routes across the region with its fleet of over 150 vehicles, as well as more than 45 school buses and a number of privately hired coaches.
Adventure Travel Managing Director Adam Keen said: “The advent of 20mph limits has contributed to the late running of buses which was already a brewing problem, as traffic levels continue to rise post-Covid. For Adventure Travel, this has the potential to result in dissatisfied passengers not arriving to their destination at the scheduled time. We want to move swiftly to combat this and ensure that every service has the best possible chance of realistically running smoothly and punctually, and so, we have been rigorously analysing our current services to see where alterations can be made. The resulting changes are mainly designed to improve route reliability and punctuality, with a couple of changes designed to enhance the number of stops served:”
The schedule and route changes and when they will come into effect are as follows:
Swansea:
- From 8 January, a timetable revision will take place on route 43 to allow the bus to arrive more punctually at Bishop Gore School. The 14:45 departure from Swansea to Morriston will now start at Bishop Gore School, while route 14 will be amended to serve Bryn Road on the 14:30 departure from Swansea.
Pontypridd / Bridgend:
- Route 65, from 20 November, will operate ten minutes earlier on all journeys, to avoid the clash between the railway crossing schedule and the bus timetable.
- Route 109 will no longer serve Hopkinstown or Telelkebir Road from 20 November and will be replaced by Route 105 to improve route reliability. Route 105 will serve Hopkinstown and Telelkebir Road its way into Pontypridd Bus Station.
- Route 111 will have a revised timetable in operation from 8 January, to ensure that the journeys that serve Ffynnon Taf Primary School have sufficient time to complete their journeys punctually.
- Route 103 will have an additional 8 minutes added to its journey time from 8 January with a view to improving the reliability and punctuality of the service.
- Route 101 will cease to operate from 8 January due to low usage. Routes 103 and 104 will continue to provide a regular service between Pontypridd Bus Station and Sainsbury’s, which the 101 used to provide.
- Route 102 will have a revised timetable in operation from late January (date to be determined), with daytime buses running every 30 minutes rather than every 20 minutes. These changes are being made in the midst of increasing traffic levels and slower journey times, which have resulted in the 102 becoming unreliable. Evening journeys will operate approximately every 90 minutes rather than every 60 minutes for the same reason.
Vale of Glamorgan
- Routes 89A and 89B will be combined into new route ‘305’ from 8 January, with a more robust timetable. In addition, the 305 will serve Dinas Powys Medical Centre, as well as connecting Dinas Powys with Penarth Esplanade, both of which have been popular previous requests.
- Route B3 will be amended to operate via Barry Interchange from 8 January which will result in one less journey overall each day, to provide additional running time on remaining journeys.
- Route 320 will no longer serve St Georges and The Drope from 8 January – a necessary change to ensure that the rest of the route can operate punctually.
- Route 321 will have a revised timetable in operation from 8 January which will result in less journeys operating, with the intention to improve the reliability and punctuality of the remaining journeys.
Cardiff / Newport:
- Route 304 will cease to operate via Fonmon Road and Port Road in Rhoose from 8 January to improve the overall reliability and punctuality of the service, which has suffered from increasing traffic levels and longer journey times resulting in passenger dissatisfaction. Passengers who use the bus from these two roads will be able to board the bus on Font-y-Gary Road. The outbound route from Cardiff will change slightly as well, to avoid the buses being delayed at the entrance to the John Lewis car park. Buses will now leave Cardiff via Penarth Road, serving the Cardiff Railway Station bus stop.
- Route R1 will see an amended timetable in operation from 8 January, with less journeys in operation, to ensure that remaining journeys can operate punctually.
