““diversion of the services between Corwen and Bala. These services have been servicing the villages for years. “”
Nearly 60 years I believe. That does not mean it is the correct option . A long distance double decker service, part of a National Network, should not be travelling 14 miles along a narrow B road to pick up very few passengers and those passengers should be serviced by Bwcabus to connect with the T3 in Bala or Corwen.
But are they intended to be long distance services, or are they long stopping bus services that are run as one service for operational and connectional convenience with no real intention that anyone would use it as a through service?
Two very good points above. I agree in principle with both of the arguments - a national long-distance network should NOT be making detours but it is important to serve these places with bus services. If the money isn't there to do both it does make sense to run a service that isn't really intended to be a long-distance but runs through anyway to reduce the need for passengers making shorter journeys to change bus. What I object to is pretending to have a national long-distance network (and the T3 is certainly branded as part of one) when really they are ordinary local bus services. The TrawsCymru Connect branding makes alot more sense, it doesn't pretend to be what it's not; unfortunately most of the network right now really should fall under the 'Connect' brand and the mainline services need speeding up by cutting out detours like Pencader (T1) and New Quay (T5) - trouble with that is we will then need more 'Connect' services to fill in the gaps.
I agree that it should be integrated with the rail system; however I'm not sure England is that much different. Yes there aren't as many massive railway voids in England as there are in Wales, but there are still areas where the railway routes run in parallel and you need a bus if you want to go perpendicular to them. The most obvious one of those will eventually be fixed by East West Rail, but things like Whitby to York will remain difficult and, with England being a far bigger area than Wales, I expect you could end up with a similar number (9 or 10) of strategic long-distance bus routes.That said, it is my view that Traws should have been better integrated with the railway, as part of a single fares and timetable system. Wales has huge gaps in the railway, so plugging them in this way has much more going for it than in England.
Interesting; for many years passengers were made to change at Aberaeron between TrawsCambria X50 and X40 services to go from Cardigan to Aberystwyth. If I recall correctly, at the time I was lead to believe that was because the X40 and 550 north of Aberaeron were commercial services by Arriva and subsidising the X50 through to Aberystwyth was not allowed (although some morning and evening services did run through; I was never sure if Richards Bros were doing that commercially in competition with Arriva).Not quite that simple. I believe there would be legal issues with putting on an identical service, but it doesn't need to be much different for it to be potentially justified.
If you have a route A-B-C, say, and A-B is commercial but the commercial operator won't run B-C, but there's considerable demand A-C, then it is perfectly valid to put on a tendered service that runs the full route A-C. You don't have to make people change, and the commercial operator does not have a right to insist that you pay them to extend to C (though this may of course sometimes be cheaper) nor that you don't carry A-B passengers.
Real world (non-Welsh, as I don't know one) example - MK Council traditionally had a tendered route CMK-Newport Pagnell-Olney even though commercial CMK-Newport Pagnell services have long been provided. This is perfectly allowed.