In November 2016 the Welsh Tourist Alliance presented evidence to the Climate Change, Environment, and Rural Affairs Committee of the Senedd. It stated that the total contribution to the Welsh economy from tourism “amounts to some £6.2bn or 13.3% of the total economy”. With our tourist industry recovering from a challenging few years, you’d think that enabling visitors to enjoy our towns, villages, and landscapes would take a fairly high priority. Yet the only mention of public transport in that report related to the railways.
A quick glance at a map tells you that rural railway lines are few and far between. That leaves many tourists trapped in a web of infrequent and erratic bus services, while faced with outdated or non-existent timetables and unreliable information from Transport for Wales (TfW). It’s hardly an incentive to go green while enjoying the best our country has to offer. A prime example is the globally-important destination of Hay-on-Wye.
Taking the T14
I’ve previously mentioned the TrawsCymru T14 bus service. It runs from Cardiff to Hereford via Pontypridd, Merthyr, Brecon, Bronllys, Talgarth, Aberllynfi, Hay-on-Wye, and a host of villages over the border. Stagecoach has gone all out promoting it since it was extended last summer.
There are posters inside the vehicles and attractive murals on the exteriors. I’ve seen one bus advertising Hereford as a great day trip from Cardiff. Hereford is beautiful, with a great deal to enjoy – too much to cram into 20 minutes. But unless you dig deep into the timetables, that’s really all that’s on offer.
On weekdays, the first three T14 journeys start from Brecon. The times vary depending on whether it’s a college term or the holidays. How a visitor from Canada, Germany, India, or Japan (all of which I’ve met on my travels) would know if it’s term-time is a mystery I can’t fathom.
Most tourists can rule those three out: the first bus from Cardiff arrives in Brecon just before 10am. The next T14 leaves Brecon at 11:07am, reaching Hereford at 12:50pm. It returns at 1.10pm – and that’s the last listed direct return journey. Search for buses from Cardiff to Hereford on Traveline Cymru (part of TfW), and that’s your only option.
However, the next T14 from Hereford is actually at 4.20pm (4.25pm if school’s out for summer), and the last is at 5.55pm. In both cases, you have to change at Brecon. Those don’t seem to be options on Traveline Cymru, though. That website advises passengers to change at Pontybat Crossroads, literally in the middle of nowhere. There isn’t even a shelter – just a lay-by and a signpost with the TrawsCymru logo. It wouldn’t be my first choice of interchange.
Public transport curfews
There used to be a less indirect bus from Cardiff to Hereford – the X3 – via Malpas (effectively Newport), Cwmbran, Pontypool, and Abergavenny. I caught it once, then vowed I’d never waste another three hours of my life on it. Traveline Cymru tells me it’s been superseded by a two-step journey: Cardiff to Newport, then Stagecoach 23 to Hereford. The second leg alone takes about two-and-a-half hours. On the plus side, a ticket is just £9. The train costs at least twice as much, but it’ll get you there in a little over an hour.
There’s an extra T14 from Merthyr at 815am on Saturdays. But you need to get to Merthyr first. That’s an extra £8.70 on the train from Cardiff. You’d be better off catching the train to Hereford, unless you enjoy gazing at scenery for literally hours.
Of course, the T14 stops at Hay-on-Wye. It’s tricky to work out what Hay’s nearest railway station is. Hereford, Knighton, and Abergavenny are all 30km away as the crow flies. Of those, only Hereford is connected to Hay-on-Wye by bus – the T14. You’d think it would be the ideal way to spend a day in the world’s first Booktown. You’d think.
I’m writing this shortly after the internationally-renowned Hay Festival of Literature and Arts 2024, which was attended by many thousands. I wasn’t one of them. Theoretically, I could have gone every day if the mood had taken me. But there wasn’t much point, thanks to the Escher-like bus situation.
Hay-on-Wye why
Most big hitters at Hay don’t start coming on until 5.30pm. In theory, I could stay until nearly 7pm, catch a bus from Brecon at 8pm, then a train or another bus from Merthyr. I’ve compared the timetables, though, and chances are I couldn’t get home to Aberdare.
The last bus from Merthyr leaves at 8.40pm. I’d have a 10-minute window to make my connection. The alternative involves staying on until Pontypridd and catching a train, which takes me 25km out of my way. And what’s the point of buying a festival ticket if you’ll have to leave before the end anyway?
As for morning events … forget it! The earliest I could be onsite would be 10am on a Saturday, taking advantage of the extra bus. The Sundays and bank holiday Monday of the festival may as well not exist, because the T14 doesn’t either. Both my previous visits were on Sundays, because I got a lift with friends. There’s no other way to get there.
Actually, that isn’t strictly true; Hay-on-Wye is accessible from England on a Sunday. Yeomans Canyon Travel of Hereford operates the 39A. According to its website, the first bus leaves Hereford railway station at 10.25am and arrives at 11.20am. The third – and last – of the day leaves Hay-on-Wye at 5.25pm. Or … does it?
Again, it depends who you believe. Traveline Cymru puts the first bus from Hereford at 1.17pm, nearly three hours later, and the last return service at 5.22pm, three minutes earlier. Do you rock up at Hereford railway station at 10.15am and risk hanging around for three hours? Do you gamble on the 5.25pm, or get to the stop early? It’s Sunday evening, remember – the driver won’t want to hang around.
Bus stop life
For the majority of tourists, the T14 isn’t much to write home about. Most of the journeys begin and end at Brecon, 30km by road from the nearest railway station. There’s only one through-bus per day from Cardiff, six days a week. And buses don’t fly like crows – they wander around like stoned penguins.
If you leave Greyfriars Road shortly after 9am, you can be in Hay-on-Wye before midday. But for a direct return service, you’d have to leave at 2.15pm, arriving just after 5pm. That’s a round trip of nearly eight hours, five-and-a-half of which you’ll spend on a bus. If you’re lucky, you’ll have time for a pint. There are brief stops at Brecon and Merthyr if you need the toilet.
Until recently, I hadn’t realised the situation faced by people who live and work in the T14 corridor. Remember: if you live west of Offa’s Dyke, Brecon is the closest large town by bus. Hereford is at least an hour the other way.
On the last Saturday of the Six Nations, I got chatting to a woman in the Brecon Tap. ‘Maggie’ is retired and lives in Hay-on-Wye. She was killing time between shopping and the last bus home at 4pm. If she’d missed it, she’d have been stuffed until Monday. That’s true for anyone working in Brecon. As with my other friends who work there, all they need to be able to commute by bus is an understanding boss. But how many employers let their staff bail out before 4pm?
Talgarth to Timbuktu
The same applies further along the route. The T14 doesn’t quite serve Bronllys Hospital; it stops near the entrance to the grounds. But people are likely to want to travel from there in the afternoons. When did you last get called in on time for a hospital appointment? The final eastbound bus leaves at around 4.15pm. You’d have to be out of the hospital by 4pm to catch it. The staff needs to be onsite for at least another hour, so are left with no alternative but to drive.
Further south, the 10th Annual Talgarth Walking Festival took place 3–6 May, a bank holiday weekend. Talgarth is also served by the X12 from Abergavenny to Builth Wells, but neither bus runs on Sundays or bank holidays. So for two days of the four, the town and its festival were cut off from the outside world except by private transport.
The festival website acknowledged this. “We encourage participants in our events to lift-share and use public transport wherever possible, while acknowledging that this does present some difficulties in our rural and sparsely-connected area.” That’s putting it mildly, isn’t it?
Until ‘Maggie’ pointed out her predicament over a pint, I’d thought my area was poorly served by public transport. But at least people in the Valleys can get home from work – always assuming they finish at 5pm. Outside public transport ‘peak hours’, Hay-on-Wye is almost as remote as its twin town, Timbuktu.
