‘Disrupted rail trip from hell across Wales took 12 hours and £108 taxi’
AMAN took almost 12 hours to cross Wales by train after Transport for Wales dumped people in the cold and dark to wait for a bus.
Ellis Thomas, from Caernarfon, had spent the day with his partner browsing the Christmas market in Cardiff before catching the 3.23pm train home on Wednesday.
What should have been a four-hour journey took more than 11 hours as he criss-crossed Wales after multiple delays and abrupt train terminations.
The 22-year-old eventually arrived at Bangor just after 2am, where he’d left his car two days before.
His journey, which he likened to a “day from hell”, started going awry just one stop in when the train rolled into Newport. A Tannoy announcement informed passengers the train was terminating and Transport for Wales staff advised anyone heading north to race across the bridge to catch the next train to Manchester instead.
As Ellis and his partner sprinted over the bridge between platforms, the Manchester-bound train pulled away. He said: “There were 50 people running over the bridge, and when the train left some people just lost it.”
The train disruption was caused by a broken section of track at Craven Arms in Shropshire, which affected services on Wednesday and into Thursday.
By late afternoon, Ellis and his partner were still four hours from home. Staff advised the pair to catch the train to Hereford, which was “at least more northern”. But as the train reached Abergavenny it halted and the driver said there was a red light ahead. It stayed on the tracks for two hours, not moving, said Ellis.
“We were just sat on the train outside the station for two hours,” he said. When they eventually got to Hereford, two hours later than planned, they heard the track had been repaired and they could continue to Manchester. But one stop out from Craven Arms, the train ground to a halt again due to further faults down the line.
There was another two-hour wait for Ellis and his partner in a two-carriage train with no drinks trolley and one toilet out of order. Another Tannoy announcement told them the train would terminate at Craven Arms and a bus would offer alternative onward transport.
“Craven Arms is a small station, with no staff, and around 100 of us were just dumped there,” Ellis said, adding he watched the train they had just alighted from sailing back towards Cardiff.
“We all just stood there in the car park, waiting for the bus.” When it arrived there were just 10 seats on it, he claimed, and Ellis was “lucky” to get on.
“Next thing, everyone was pushing for the bus and ramming the door,” Ellis added. The bus only took them as far as Shrewsbury, which meant Ellis had still only completed two-thirds of his journey and it was by now approaching midnight. He waited an hour at Shrewsbury for the next train to Chester, which was then promptly cancelled, and in desperation he phoned for a taxi instead.
Spending £50 on a cab, they were halfway to Chester when his train app said the 00.40am train to Bangor was cancelled too. Ellis said: “I just thought ‘we’ll have to get a taxi all the way home’. We went right through mid Wales, Corwen, Bala, Capel Curig, all the way to Bangor,” he said. His taxi cost £108, on top of the £44 he’d paid for the original ticket, and it was 2am when he finally saw his car again.
Exhausted from his near-12-hour journey, Ellis said he slept in until lunchtime the next day to recover. He is due to travel back to Cardiff this weekend to watch the rugby and is hoping he has a more straightforward journey home.
A Transport for Wales spokesman said: “Unfortunately due to a broken track near Craven Arms there was a significant disruption to services on all routes in the area on Wednesday.
“As this section of track was being repaired a second defect was discovered and this resulted in further disruption into Thursday morning, while repairs were carried out. We agreed ticket acceptance with three other operators to help passengers continue their journeys where possible and replacement road transport was put in place.
“While this incident was out of our control, delays and cancellations are frustrating and we would like to apologise to Mr Thomas. Passengers whose journeys are delayed by more than 15 minutes, or cancelled, can claim for compensation via the Delay Repay portal on the Transport for Wales website.”