More carriages vital as passengers like sardines

WE caught a local train from Treorchy towards the Cardiff area on Tuesday. It was a typical muggy Welsh evening. Having not been on a train for some years, I was shocked at the service. The train itself was clean, the conductor was a nice enough fellow and for the first part of the journey it was also enjoyable peering out of the large windows as we moved along at high speed.

However, as the train made its way down the valley towards the capital, it started to fill up with passengers. By the time we had arrived at Pontypridd, it was full, with some people standing. We then pulled into Treforest and another hundred or so people got on, and before I knew it, people were crammed in to the two carriages. Trust me, even sardines would think that it’s a bit much.

I got up to give an elderly woman my seat and a gentleman who was standing next to me said that this standard of service was regular. I was shocked. We then got off at Cardiff Central railway station and I felt relieved to leave this nightmare behind us. But I remembered, we had to catch the train back up the valley later on that evening.

Riding on a train should be an enjoyable experience and we should have a better train service. People are not sardines and I think it is dangerous to be standing up on such a fastmoving vehicle. It is only a matter of time before someone gets hurt.

If the rail company added an additional carriage or two to the train that we were riding on, then it would have been a wonderful experience. I don’t think that it would even cost that much in additional diesel to do this, either. I will only rarely be riding on the train in the future, if at all. This will only be after the train company has put its hand in its pocket and has bought some additional rolling stock.

Joe Barry Abergwynfi the commercially funded networks – offer some more but cut staffing costs. Sport is the most glaring example of overman- and womaning. All those commentators they shipped out to Rio for the Olympics, for instance. Then week by week you see all these talking heads around sporting events. Coverage starts as much as two hours before the actual event starts and goes on afterwards with a long discussion (yawn).

Once you just had a commentator – or possibly two – doing voiceovers at the game or event. Coverage began at kick-off, or just before, and ended at, or soon after, the final whistle or presentation of cup, medal or what have you.

Who needs all this punditry – often by retired sports people (who often seem to waffle – even those