PEOPLE travelling to Ceredigion on Saturday for the start of the National Eisteddfod are being advised not to travel by rail as industrial action is expected to hit the network.

Transport for Wales is advising customers not to travel on Saturday unless their journey is essential.

Transport for Wales (TfW) is not involved in Saturday’s industrial action by members of the train driver’s union ASLEF, but some of its services are likely to be extremely busy as a result of the severely-reduced timetable put in place by other operators.

TfW says that TrawsCymru bus services will be running as normal however.

These include T1, T1C, T2 and T5.

TfW services on the South Wales Main Line between Swansea and Newport are expected to be very busy because there are no Great Western Railway (GWR) services running between Cardiff and Swansea, and an extremely limited service between Cardiff and Newport on Saturday.

TfW will be running additional services along this route in order to provide extra capacity.

Services between Shrewsbury and Birmingham, where the 2022 Commonwealth Games are taking place, will also be particularly busy as West Midlands Railway are also not operating on Saturday.

Extra staff will be deployed at stations to provide customer services.

The National Eisteddfod has organised additional buses to travel from major towns in Ceredigion to the Maes in Tregaron.

Tickets must be booked in advance and timetables can be found at https://eisteddfod.wales/2022-bysiau

The additional commercial bus services between Aberystwyth and the Maes are low level buses which are suitable for wheelchairs. The additional commercial bus services between Lampeter, Aberaeron and the Maes are coaches and are therefore unsuitable for wheelchairs.

These services are not operated by the Eisteddfod.