They made a right hash of transport
HAVING lived in south Wales for 52 years, I have moved to Greater London, Surrey to be exact.
Usually when returning to visit relatives I drive down by car but on the last occasion recently I decided to use the national coach service from London Victoria to Cardiff as I was attending a funeral so caught the coach. Upon booking, to my horror, I discovered that Cardiff bus and coach station was no more and had been pulled down and the land sold for redevelopment.
What a waste. Cardiff bus station was ideally situated by the central railway station. The long distance coaches came in from all over Britain and was an ideal situation for a bus and rail service.
Now the bus terminus are scattered around the city, the coach station is on the outskirts of town at Sophia Gardens and, from what I have been told by my sister who still lives in Cardiff, is that there are only going to be 14 stands for buses, and the national coaches are going to have to use an underground station and limited coach bays. What an earth were Cardiff city planners thinking when they sold off Central Square when it was a perfect site for bus and coaches to come in and drop off and allow passengers to get on before the coaches and buses departed for their separate destinations? Were Cardiff council that cash strapped that they needed to sell of the land? It is absolutely disgusting. It was ideally situated in the centre of Cardiff ideally situated to Cardiff Central train station. I am afraid that Cardiff planners have made a big blunder and I for one am really ashamed that they could do such a thing. It was a hive of activity and people knew where they were going now I don’t have a clue what bus to catch and where it goes from even to the point my sister had to pick me up by car, whereas before they pulled down the bus station I would have alighted in the bus station and caught the appropriate bus to my sister’s. But no, they made a right hash of it.
Get your act together Cardiff. London Victoria coach station is not far to the train and tube stations, about two minutes walk that’s all, Cardiff was less than that.
I remain a very disgruntled shocked, discouraged traveler to Cardiff/Caerdydd. Twm ap Storm Surrey