Cardiff bus station, bus networks and integration…

Cardiff is getting a new bus station in Spring 2024…at last.  Over the last few months, I have observed much commentary on this project, about the delay, the shortcomings, the coaches, etc. Some appear insightful, some misinformed and some just wrong.  So, I thought I might share a few reflections on bus, integration and the bus station.  No doubt I will be told I am wrong in due course.

Cardiff’s original bus station  Figure 1 was built on the site of the old Temperance town houses in the 1950s. It was refurbished with new fully covered stops  Figure 2 in the late 1970s and was eventually demolished to make way for Central Square Figure 3  in 2015. 

Figure 1 Cardiff’s old central bus station – pre late 1970s upgrade

Figure 2 Cardiff Bus Station post late 1970s upgrade (taken early 90s?)

The new bus station will open in Spring this year and be operated by Transport for Wales[i].  To be clear TfW have only been involved I understand, since early 2023 and their role has been to fit out and then to operate the bus station.  Work on specification, design and major construction pre-dates TfW involvement. Operator Cardiff Bus will certainly use the new facility, not sure about others like NAT, Stagecoach etc?

Figure 3 Central Square #1

Figure 4 Central Square #2

Figure 5 Cardiff’s new bus station #1

Figure 6 Cardiff’s new bus station #2

Figure 7 Cardiff’s new bus station #3

Before I get into the appropriateness of the new facility, and what we need to happen next to maximise its value, perhaps a few reflections and observations to set some context.

• Many cities I have visited do not have a major local bus or coach station next to their main railway station. Do Paddington, Kings Cross, Manchester Piccadilly,  Copenhagen? Yes some do, but it seems to me the vast majority dont.  What most rail stations need/have are some local bus stops, or a small bus station,  and often tram stops as well, that connect rail services into a wider bus/tram/light rail  network (all of which in Europe are often overtly integrated via network design, pricing and ticketing – my observations of Basel were of this nature  See my recollections of a train trip across Europe in 2022[ii] See Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10)

Figure 8 Bus stops outside Copenhagen rail station

Figure 9 Tram/bus stops outside Basel station

Figure 10 Bus & tram stops outside Geneva rail station

• My experience of using Cardiff Bus (which I find pretty good overall), is that on most trips to the city centre, the vast majority of people are not going to Cardiff Central and instead get off at various points around the city centre (eg Westgate St, Dumfries Place, Greyfriars Rd, etc).  I think the issue of visibility of bus services near Cardiff Central impacts more, visitors arriving  by rail who are not familiar with the city.  I also accept that a simplified concentration of bus stops  in  fewer locations provides great legibility for local residents when they wish to leave the city centre (in contrast to the current more dispersed, variable and confusing arrangement in place has since the bus station was closed in 2015)

• Cardiff Bus’s bus  network Figure 11  (as distinct from other bus operators) is also much more like a traditional hub and spoke network (although to be fair,  not entirely given number of services interchanging at Heath Hospital). This requires most services to radiate out from the city centre to points all across the city.  This can result  in an oversupply of bus services on some core central corridors and an undersupply on more peripheral sections (Although on the busy Albany Rd section I often find buses already full at peak times!). It also means some trips in the city that dont need to go via the centre are very poorly served and typically all car based.  So, for example from Pontprennau to Whitchurch or Radyr, St Mellons to Lisvane, or Fairwater to Pentwyn. 

Figure 11 Cardiff Bus Network Sep 2023

• The lack of formal integration of rail/bus and bus/bus enforces this kind of network. Historically,  people in Cardiff have been conditioned to expect to get a direct bus service to wherever they want to go.  They don’t want to change even if that were made easier.  This is a challenge; one would never be able to use or  travel on the London underground, Manchester Metrolink (or any multi-modal metro network that requires interchange) with this attitude!  We need a different approach. Such a network also restricts the number of trips in the city that can be made using public transport given finite limits on resource and so Vkm that can be operated.

• The old Cardiff bus Station  was big, trying to serve nearly all services and support  operational  layovers. It also supported coach operators – which at that time were using much smaller vehicles (newer coaches are now more often larger requiring more space to park and manoeuvre). Having so much space taken up by bus operations in this way in the middle of the city was not perhaps the most optimal use of that land.  But it was next to Cardiff Central.

• Bus services in Cardiff are also constrained and delayed primarily by lack of bus priority and bus lanes, and the impact of cars/congestion/other road users.  (NOT by 20mph speed limits or cyclists!) We need to address this. See my 2022 blog[iii] on this 

• The new bus station will also be impacted by events at the Millenium Stadium and so need to close on those occasions.

Looking ahead, the metro (rail and bus) and especially post bus reform, requires a rethink of the role of the bus in urban areas (across all operators).  Like Newcastle achieved in the early 1980s (pre-Thatcher bus deregulation); its bus networks were re-designed to overtly integrate and feed into metro rail services and to support bus/bus as well as bus/rail integration. This led to a huge surge in overall passenger numbers to 50M by 1985. This huge success was severely  impacted by the bus deregulation of the late 1980s  when PAX fell to below 30M!

We will have to do the same here across the whole CCR as well as Cardiff. The capped PAYG (pay as you go) multi modal fares and ticketing  in development and easy “tap on tap off”, will enable easy transfer between services.  We will probably need to see the bus reform legislation in place to fully enable.  Currently there are also examples of public subsidies being used  to support competing services (rail and/or bus)! Thats not very clever.  

So, what does that means…..

(and I have no doubt those with real bus operations experience will have plenty of challenges to these suggestions)

The Cardiff Bus network (And that of other operators like NAT, Stagecoach, etc) will, in my view, require modification/redesign post bus reform and metro rail operations. We need a more integrated grid like network See Fig 14 with perhaps more “pendulum” services (like the no. 8) See Figure 15    crossing the city via perhaps St Mary St/Wood St/Westgate St, with a subset of total services actually using the new bus stands at the new interchange. Some new radial services will provide cross city connections without going to the city centre at all. The primary hub interchange will still be Cardiff/Metro central – but in future augmented with other hubs/interchanges across the city.

Figure 14 Illustration of connected grid network concept

Figure 15 Illustration of “pendulum” line from Hi Trans Network Planning Guidance

On that  basis the new bus station with 15 stands is plenty big enough. Once we have at least 4tph on all Metro rail services in the city (which is not yet committed[iv]) then perhaps some bus services can stop “competing with rail”. I did set out some of this in Jan last year[v]

As part of bus network redesign, we also need to consider bus stop spacing and consolidation.  For example, around Wellfield rd. (which should be fully pedestrianised) and Penylan rd.,  we can replace probably 8 bus stops with 2 more centrally located on lower Penylan Rd (which can be bus only except for access) and which all the local bus services access and so provide an interchange function.  See Figure 12

Figure 12 Bus stop consolidation near Wellfield Rd

Similarly, stations like Birchgrove, Waungron Rd, Whitchurch (once they get at least a 4tph metro service) and Crwys Rd, Llandaff, Heath etc  can provide a much more formal rail/bus interchange function Figure 13 .  With higher frequency services (bus and metro rail) and good interchange  facilities/stops,  then trips like this should be easy. 

Figure 13 Cardiff city wide rail/bus integration

So, people in Cardiff are going to have to get used to interchange to make some trips.  In doing so, it is vital that the component bus or rail trips are of a sufficiently high frequency to minimise wait times.  This has to be a service at least once every 15 minutes and ideally more on the core bus routes of one every 5~10 minutes. The minimum has to be 4 services per hour on all routes. As I have said before no one waits 30 mins for a 20 min trip (unless they have no alternative).

In doing so we are going to need more bus lanes & prioritisation – we will fail if we don’t do this. This will improve financial and operational efficiency and make bus services more reliable and quicker – so attracting more passengers. This approach also requires that Metro rail services are of sufficiently high frequency at rail/bus interchanges – which is not currently planned at all stations in Cardiff, as I set out here. For example, a bus/rail interchange at Waungron Rd can never work if the rail service is just 2tph!

Closer to the bus station itself and to help ensure it can function efficiently and without perturbation, then we need more bus priority on the roads approaching the bus station and across the city centre. We also need the relocation of the Saunders Road taxi rank. The latter is a red flag risk for me…any excess of taxis here will risk easy access to the new interchange for buses from Saunders Rd. Taxis for Central Station need to be based south side of the rail station.

As I know is being considered, we have to view the planned enhancement to Cardiff Central and the bus interchange (as well as the bus stops on Wood St and Saint Mary St) as being part of the “same interchange”…and not two adjacent t facilities. This will cover information, signage, wayfinding etc. I have noticed at some European interchanges that bus stops are given platform numbers. Making it easy for passengers is key.

I have written before about reducing the road use discount (ie Road Use Charging), which is something else we need to consider as this also reduces congestion and improves air quality.

We need to introduce some buses with two doors for people to get on and off more quickly to reduce dwell times.  With much more tap on/tap off there is a reduced need for everyone to engage with the driver. This is common in many cities.

The whole issue of bus fares and integration with rail fares needs much work (and is i/p)…and in that vein the question of discounts and concessionary fares and the question of “free” bus fares, can be addressed

For some academic rationale to the above, then look at Jarret Walker, “Human Transit”[vi] (his revised book is available soon) and the very good  HiTrans Network Planning Guidance[vii]. I also touched upon this in my Jan 2022 blog on networks/grids and interchange[viii].   Once we have implemented a more comprehensive grid like network across the city of integrated  Metro rail and bus service,  the demand elasticities in terms of increased patronage can be much greater than 1.0 given the increase in the number of trips that can be made with just one interchange, and as exemplified in the HiTrans guidance, can be as high as 5.

This is the kind of multi-modal, multi-operator integrated network thinking we need at the heart of transport planning, nationally, regionally and locally.  This is an institutional capability that has been lost since the deregulation of buses outside London in the 1980s. We have to get away from mode/operation siloed thinking and planning and focus on customer/passenger experience and multi-modal integration. One key advice from Hi Trans was to focus initially on the core primary rail and bus routes/corridors, then hang the more “local” bus services of that framework. 

Another challenge is that all these changes are going to need some pretty serious multi modal thinking combined with comprehensive public engagement (especially those peopled who currently don’t use any public transport – these views are perhaps more important than from those already using PT) and a dash of politics…as well as some operational pragmatism! More especially as there will be choices and compromises required. Change is not easy. This article worth a look from Jarrett Walker. They key here is that neither I, nor anyone “knows” what the right network is. However, we do need to engage with a process to move us in that direction. And I know some serious thinking is already being applied; the example of the re-designed sherpa network in Eryri is a good case study given the increase in patronage that followed.

Given the above are delivered, this all lends support for the current design/layout  of the new bus station with 15 bays, which I view as sufficient when combined with better quality  provision of stops on St Mary St and Wood St, etc for some of the through cross city services.  I also favour in future, a similar smaller footprint “bus station” at the east of the city centre near Queen St (if/when the prison is relocated adjacent to the rail station with a new entrance from the East).

That’s all good, but the new bus station still leaves an issue as it won’t be handling  the new bigger coaches now in use by various operators.  Nor should it have to; we need to ask  what do we need a coach station to do? What do passengers want? and what do operators want?.  We need one that is accessible via PT (to reduce car-based drop offs) for the majority of passengers  – so either connected to a major local bus route and/or metro rail station. Operators tend to want one that is not difficult to access, avoids congestion and does not require more VKm. 

If we are going to stay city centre, then perhaps south side Callaghan Sq. works?  More radically we should also consider a coach station near or integrated with one of the potential new metro rail stations that will have good access to the motorway.  This suggests to me that we need to consider Gabalfa (so off Western Avenue) at Cardiff East on Newport rd. or at/near Pierhead St near the planned Crossrail stations.

Probably no absolute right answer re the coach station– but we do need to address the poor distributed coach stop provision the city currently “enjoys”!

To conclude, the opening of the new bus station this spring is most welcome and ought to act as a catalyst for the broader and more substantive changes we need. Looking forward to it.

---

[i]          Cardiff Bus Interchange | Transport for Wales (tfw.wales)

[ii]         To Rome and back by train… – Mark Barry (swalesmetroprof.blog)

[iii] Wales, Transport Planning & Choices… – Mark Barry (swalesmetroprof.blog)

[iv]         Metro Moans for 2023… – Mark Barry (swalesmetroprof.blog)

[v]          Metro Hopes for 2023… – Mark Barry (swalesmetroprof.blog)

[vi]         Jaret Walker, Human Transit, Human Transit — The professional blog of public transit consultant Jarrett Walker.

[vii]        John D. Nelson (University of Newcastle) Corinne Mulley (University of Newcastle) Göran Tegnér (Transek AB) Gunnar Lind (Stratega AB) Truls Lange (Civitas Consultants) Civitas 2005, HiTrans Best Practice – Network Planning  Guidance

[viii]        Wales, Transport Planning & Choices… – Mark Barry (swalesmetroprof.blog)