Buses in the Rhondda
There had been a very long gap with hardly any updates but as can now be seen, this doesn't mean nothing was happening. The gallery on Rhondda's buses became a massive project and I would like to have done it in smaller chunks, but there wasn't a clear way of doing that and the final structure didn't become clear immediately. The update has comprised (currently) 1,960 photos plus a lot of text and as always I wish to thank the many people who have generously made their photos available for the galleries.
The gallery covers all bus services operating in the Rhondda valleys until the Stagecoach takeover of Rhondda Buses in 1997, a date that is already much longer ago than it feels to be. Rhondda Transport had a virtual monopoly of bus operation in the valleys and that tends to make determining the scope of the galleries a bit simpler. Only one major service in the valleys remains to be fully covered, which is the 172 Aberdare to Porthcawl which was operated from the Red & White depot in Aberdare until 1992 - this will get covered before too long and the period from 1992 to 1997 is already covered.
The coverage also extends south to Cardiff, dealing with the joint Rhondda and Western Welsh services between Cardiff and Pontypridd. To complete the geographical coverage this has also included the Cardiff to Creigiau/Church Village service of Western Welsh, but in any case this route became worked by Porth depot and Rhondda Buses in later years. When the next major South Wales gallery is completed, which will cover Red & White services from Cardiff and Pontypridd to Aberdare, the gallery will achieve almost complete coverage of bus services in Pontypridd, at least in the twentieth century.
Rhondda Transport was very strongly associated with the AEC Regent and here is a typical example, although not quite so typical as it was one of five RT-type chassis which were never common new to operators other than London:
After being absorbed by Western Welsh the operations at Porth then became National Welsh and following the Market Analysis Project there were extensive service revisions in 1981 which led to the New Rhondda local identity on the standard NBC poppy red livery:
Then in 1992 after National Welsh collapsed Rhondda Buses Limited was established and the valleys had their own local operator again. A new image, based on the final National Welsh livery, was adopted and the quality of presentation improved markedly. A lot of new buses arrived, mainly Dennis Darts, and they could look very smart in the sun:
The coverage also extends to routes jointly operated by Rhondda Transport. The service from Cardiff to Merthyr Tydfil was joint with the municipal operators of the two towns (or city as Cardiff later became) but latterly was worked exclusively by Merthyr Tydfil. As a result their fleet is quite well covered as most of the vehicles found in the fleet worked the service at one time or another. The Leyland Leopard was a favoured chassis in Merthyr Tydfil for some years and is probably the most typical vehicle:
The most unusual joint operation covered the brief participation by Rhondda Buses in the TrawsCambria service and as a consequence I have covered the earlier history of that service which brings some unexpected vehicles and locations such as this Crosville Cymru Leyland Leopard leaving Caernarfon:
I hope you like this taster of the latest additions and go on to explore them in detail. I always welcome any contributions, both photographs and also historical information, you can either comment directly on the photo or get in touch using the contact page.