‘I can’t see an improvement, but I wouldn’t go as far
Among travellers, Transport for Wales’ takeover meant hope of better services. A year on, reporter Lydia Stephens documents her commute into the city
IT has been a year since Transport for Wales took over Wales’ rail service from Arriva Trains Wales.
Commuters were so happy about the end of Arriva, they planned a party to celebrate its departure.
Transport for Wales came in with the promise of new trains, increased capacity and refurbished trains.
But have rail users benefited a year on? Has anything changed since then?
■ Got to the train station with plenty of time
I live in the Rhondda, but I choose to drive to Pontyclun every morning, which takes anything between 10-20 minutes, depending on traffic, because of how notoriously bad Valley trains are.
I have a choice of two trains that will get me to work for 8am - one at 7.23am and another at 7.35am - I usually get the later one as there is more chance of me getting a seat.
I purchase a monthly seasonal ticket every month from Cardiff Central Station. As this is an unmanned station, I can’t get a ticket of this kind from here, hopefully this will change in the future.
■ First train arrives
To my surprise, everything was moving pretty good this morning, I have noticed a pattern in the last year that whenever we have bad weather, the trains are often delayed or cancelled.
As soon as the 7.23am train arrived it was pretty clear that even if I did get on, I wouldn’t even have two feet of breathing room let alone a seat.
The train was formed of two carriages, and as Pontyclun is the last stop on the line, passengers who get on there usually get slim pickings when it comes to seats.
■ No Transport for Wales branding
I have seen a couple of trains with Transport for Wales branding on them, but they don’t show up that often.
This one is still painted the old Arriva colours, but like most commuters, I’m not bothered by this, I would prefer to just get on a train on time. ■ Pretty busy
The train has people standing in the aisles even before it stops at the station.
I always complain about standing on the train, and I am often reminded by friends that I would do it on a London tube, so why not a Transport for Wales train?
Busy London tubes should not be a standard that we hold our rail travel too, also the aisle style seating on TFW trains is really not practical for this.
I think everyone who really wanted to get on this train managed to, but a couple of us stayed on the platform to wait for the next one.
It looked a bit too cramped for my liking so I held on for the 7.35am.
■ 10-minute wait for the next train
Much to my surprise, my second train was on time and arrived soon after.