According to one source this was Pontypridd’s first bus route, starting operation on 16th June 1930. Whilst the exact date requires confirmation it was certainly around that time the service started. The climb up High Street ensured that Pontypridd buses didn’t get an easy baptism!
It was always a circular route to Maesycoed, leaving Pontypridd on High Street then Factory Lane, Llanwern Road, Mound Road, Lanelay Crescent to Maesycoed Road. Return to Pontypridd was along Pwllgwaun Road, Rhondda Road and Mill Street. That was the Mound Road variant, the Quarry Road buses continued from Lanwern Road along Hurford Street and Quarry Road and then used Lanelay Crescent in the opposite direction to get to Maesycoed Road.
The Dan-y-Lan service was a variant on the Quarry Road route and on leaving Hurford Street it ran to the terminus along Dan-y-Lan Road and Lan Draw Road. It then returned the same way to the end of Hurford Street where it then returned to Pontypridd the same way as the Quarry Road service. It had been introduced in 1948 running on Wednesdays and Saturdays only but was withdrawn again as part of a series of economies from 24th March 1950. It was re-introduced in the Taff-Ely era.
The Maesycoed routes were relatively frequent, even in 1979 there was a bus every twenty minutes on a Saturday. There was just a handful of journeys to Dan-y-Lan which were all in the middle of the day. On Sundays only the Quarry Road route operated.
By 1981 the Quarry Road and Dan-y-Lan routes had been merged with all journeys running to Dan-y-Lan except on Sundays when just the Quarry Road circular ran. The Mound Road service was unchanged but less frequent on Saturdays.
© David Beilby
