Pickets at rail stations over lack of services in Welsh language
WELSH LANGUAGE campaigners will be holding a series of pickets across the country today against the new train service provider Transport Wales due to the lack of services available in Welsh.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg has received a large number of complaints about the franchise-holder, including some about the Englishonly ticket website, English-only announcements on trains, a new ticket app in English only and selfservice machines that don’t function properly in Welsh.
According to the Welsh Language Commissioner, Keolis Amey, the company that runs the new franchise, should have been complying with the Welsh-language standards from the first day it took over the service in October last year.
The pickets will take place at six railway stations: Cardiff Central, Swansea, Carmarthen, Aberystwyth, Machynlleth and Bangor.
David Williams, of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, said: “The failings of the new train company are so bad in respect of Welsh-language provision that it is almost unprecedented for a public service.
“We’re aware of a large number of wide-ranging complaints about services that are not available in Welsh or that treat the Welsh language less favourably than English.
“Due to the seriousness of the situation, we have asked the Welsh Language Commissioner to use her extensive powers to undertake a general investigation.
“It is a great disappointment that the Welsh Government, Transport for Wales and the company that is under contract to them have failed to ensure that these services are in place, despite having sufficient time to do so before the new contract started.
“They should have made plans to ensure these services were provided properly.”
Colin Lea, commercial and customer experience director of Transport for Wales Rail Services, said: “We are fully committed to the Welsh language and to providing services within Wales bilingually. We have an agreed and funded plan over the next 12 months to roll out more and better Welsh-language provision for the benefit of our customers.
“We completely agree that our customers should be able to book their tickets in the Welsh language, so we are working with industry partners to find an answer where the technology and systems haven’t caught up.
“Currently, our website and app, including the online trainbooking facility provided by Trainline, use critical data provided from a range of GB-wide rail industry systems.
“At this stage, this data is only interpreted in the English language – for example, this includes key elements such as the National Reservation System, which is only available in English.
“Solutions we are exploring may include the use of post-processed automatic translation systems. Please bear with us while we do our very best to put accurate Welsh-language functionality in place as soon as possible.”