Train companies need to co-operate

I WRITE to raise my concerns about the lack of collaboration between train-operating companies at Cardiff Central station whenever disruption occurs, and in particular during the current phase of overnight engineering works.

This week I and about 15 others experienced the ridiculous situation of being advised by our Arriva Trains Wales guard on a delayed service into Cardiff Central that our First Great Western train to Portsmouth was waiting on platform 0, only to see it waved off as we ran up to the platform ramp (15 commuters who are not that fit make plenty of noise doing this and are not easily overlooked).

The excuse given was that First Great Western had refused the request to hold the train and that Arriva Trains station staff would be fined for any delay (in fact, we reached the platform about 30 seconds after the scheduled 06:30 departure time so it would have only held it for around two minutes).

However, when we boarded the 07:00 Cross Country Trains service (the next service into Bristol) it was held for three minutes because of the late departure of the 06:56 First Great Western train to London Paddington. The guard explained that there seems to be a pecking order and that First Great Western

trains to London are always given priority while others are ignored.

Clearly such small differences in departure time are not truly significant and I very much doubt that fines would be levied. A little co-operation between train companies and their staff would go a long way to improving the passenger experience and make commuters more supportive of the arguments being put forward that the staff are there to assist passengers when problems arise. Jeremy Sweetman Dinas Powys