Created 17-Jan-20
Modified 8-Mar-24
Until the 1920s road access into the upper Rhondda valleys was only by coming up the valley. It was recognised that this was a major impediment to the prosperity of the Rhondda and finally in the 1920s a major programme of road building was undertaken which provided links from Treherbert to Rhigos and also from Treorchy to the Ogmore and Afan valleys. It is the bus services over the latter roads that form the subject of this gallery.
These are spectacular roads and the ascent from Treorchy affords dramatic views of Cwmparc and Treorchy. There is no housing on these roads, their function being to provide inter-valley links. They are also tough roads for bus working as in the climb from Treorchy to Bwlch-y-Clawdd, where the two routes split, the road ascends some 900 feet and if going over to the Afan Valley there is a further climb of around 300 feet before the descent commences.
Bus services started using these roads surprisingly quickly with Rhondda starting a service from Treorchy to Pricetown in July 1929. The service initially had nine return trips per day and connections were available with the Port Talbot service (see below) at the most inhospitable interchange (in winter at least) at Bwlch-y-Clawdd to allow passengers to travel between the Ogmore and Afan valleys. For reasons that aren't clear this service doesn't appear in timetables every year but by 1934 had become a summer only service operating June to September. This comprised three trips daily with just two on Sundays. The advent of World War 2 saw the service cease, never to be resumed.
The Great Western Railway initially operated a service from Port Talbot to Abergwynfi which was later extended to Treorchy. In 1929 the Western Welsh Omnibus Company was formed which took over the railway company's bus services in South Wales, including this one which was certainly shown at first as being jointly operated with South Wales. I don't believe this service was ever operated by Rhondda and as a consequence it only appeared sporadically in their timetables. It also seems to have become purely a Western Welsh service in later years.
The service was suspended during World War 2 but did resume after. It became a Port Talbot to Abergwynfi service with the exception of two trips to Treorchy on Sundays and was withdrawn altogether by the late 1950s/early 1960s.
The condition of Blaenrhondda tunnel meant that the railway line between Cymmer Afan and Treherbert had to be closed from 26th February 1968 and as a consequence a temporary rail replacement bus service was instituted on this section which was operated (in part at least) by Rhondda Transport. This will have continued until the formal closure of the railway line from 22nd June 1970 (a train for school pupils continued until the end of term but that was not on this section).
A formal rail replacement service then started which was a joint South Wales and Western Welsh service, the two operators numbering it 246 and 546 respectively. It was probably initially Rhondda Transport rather than Western Welsh but the first timetable issue that contains the service dates from after the Western Welsh takeover - it may have originally had a different number than 546. In practice these issues are academic as it seems to have been entirely worked by South Wales. The service started with seven return trips daily (except Sundays) but rapidly reduced and was just three daily trips by 1974. By February 1976 it was only shown as the South Wales 246 service and was reduced to just two trips on Saturdays. The following year it was extended to Sandfields Estate in Port Talbot and renumbered 226. By 1978 the first journey from Treorchy and the last back ran to/from Swansea providing a useful shopping link, running non-stop between Swansea and Port Talbot. It was still running at the end of 1981 but I have no information on its subsequent fate.
In later years Rhondda ran many day-trips to Aberavon, many of which passed over Bwlch-y-Clawdd and it became the X8 service - this is covered in the "On tour" gallery.
© David Beilby
