Great Welsh Bus Pass Sketchcrawl #2 - X1 Bridgend to Swansea Bus

 

Yesterday saw me take a pass on the bus pass sketchcrawl because I had art group in the morning. Today though I had no prior engagements so I decided to take the bus into Swansea this time and follow my nose. The bus was due outside the railway station at 8:33. It was ten minutes late. That’s the way it goes, although it could have caused issues. I will come back to that.

The X1 service from Bridgen to Swansea and vice versa is the most useful service for me. It takes about 45 minutes from the bus stop outside my house to go either way.

I arrived at the Quadrant bus station in Swansea at about half nine. There was the same kind of miserable light drizzle I put up with in Cardiff on Monday, and so once again this really precluded any outdoor sketching. That doesn’t have to be a huge issue I Swansea any more than it is in Cardiff. My first thought was the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, and since that doesn’t open until 10 it gave me an opportunity to stop for a cappuchino. Very nice too.

There was a problem with the Glynn Vivian. They’re setting up a new exhibition in the main hall and so it really wasn’t possible to find anywhere I could sit down, get myself comfortable and make a sketch. So then I decided to head back to the bus station ad see if there was another destination I fancied. The answer was no, or rather, not one I thought would be worth a gamble on such a drizzly day. I did notice that there was a service to Carmarthen which was due out five minutes after the X1 arrived. If I’d been wanting to take this one, then my bus earlier having been ten minutes late would have scuppered my chances. Just something to bear in mind. Still, Carmarthen is a definite potential destination from Swansea, as is Brecon.

So I sketched the waiting X1 before it left. I think that it’s fair to say that in the three weeks since I’ve had my bus pass I’ve used more buses in Wales than in the previous 33 years since I passed my driving test. Using public transport is something I really enjoy when I’m abroad – granted, my number 1 preference is trams, followed by metros with buses in 3^rd. Mind you, it makes a difference that I’m not in a hurry at the moment.

One thing I’ve noticed is the number of passengers who use bus passes like mine. I don’t think I’ve been on a bus in the last few weeks where the majority of passengers have been paying customers. So I don’t really mind having the bus as the hero of my second sketch of this challenge.