Busing in the 1960s

In the early 60's the old Peake's buses used to travel up and down Penygarn Hill rattling and banging and blowing out huge clouds of exhaust fumes onto innocent passersby. Sometimes even dropping pieces of bodywork.

Ralfs buses, Red & White buses, and Western Welsh all travelled through my village of Sebastopol on their way up to Pontypool, and down to Newport.  I remember the flock fabric seats and the ashtrays in the back of the seat in front - usually all black with cigarette ash and the occasional cigarette stump.  The conductor wore a twin strapping arrangement holding cash bag over one shoulder and ticket machine over the other.  Lurching up and down the aisle as the bus travelled along the winding valley roads, he or she would issue a ticket for your journey.  If you were making a "return journey", then they would use a handy little gadget attached to their belt to punch holes in your ticket.

A timetables would be attached to a wall near the bus stop, and generally had a chunk torn or worn away, (usually the section you needed to find details of your bus.)

To save on bus fares, men would take to the bicycle.  They'd tuck their trousers into a set of bicycle clips to prevent their turnups being ruined by oil from the chain. Then away.

Now we have Traveline Cymru and all travel arrangements can easily be found online. Covering coach, and train timetables and even cycle routes this not-for-profit organisation is based on a partnership between the Welsh Government, local authorities and transport operators. They are there solely to provide impartial journey information for all modes of public transport throughout Wales.

They collate information from local authorities, bus, coach and train operators and use a variety of different methods to inform the public. Traveline's aim is to encourage less carbon intensive methods of travel throughout Wales.

www.traveline-cymru.info  Their bi-lingual website

Tel: 0871 200 22 33 is their bi-lingual call centre based in Wales.

You can text your bus stop code to 84268 and a free reply will advise the next four buses passing through that stop.  The code is available on their website.

NextBuses.mobi  is a mobile internet service

Also a free App is available for iPhone & Android, providing travel details whilst you are on the move.

TravelineCymru