Editor

I read in your paper in the last few weeks 'Six more trains running on a Sunday’.

I, like many other passengers, alas found that not only over the Christmas period but well before in Transport for Wales’ governship, there have been great shortcomings in both the timetable and the reliability of the rolling stock, with many trains finishing at Machynlleth and not going on to Pwllheli or Aberystwyth.

This is compounded by the shortage of carriages, which brings me to our trip on Monday, 23 December. My wife and I have found the train service on our many trips to Birmingham tolerable.

However we have heard over the past few months about friends who have been stranded and missed connections while having to jump into buses to link with other stations. Nonetheless we booked our tickets to visit our son in Bury St Edmunds, which meant changing in Birmingham and Peterborough.

We gave in to worrying when at Machynlleth there was no connection from Pwllheli, which left us with two coaches already at standing room only. We did arrive at Birmingham but were jammed in further by more passengers being collected at Wellington. Telford and Smethwick stations have a local service into Birmingham New Street. These pick-up and drop-off stations cause the overcrowding and stop passengers from Wales boarding the train in Birmingham, which happened on our return journey on 27 December.

Our return was filled with complications due to the train being half an hour late and only two carriages instead of the normal four. Mass crowds appeared when the train arrived already filled from Birmingham Airport. We found that most of the passengers for Wales were overcome by shoppers and local passengers who streamed onto the two carriages while all but a few Welsh passengers were left, standing, holding their cases.

The poor platform attendant was attacked by all with the same question: “That was our train and we had reserved tickets, what do we do next?” His answer was “there is another train in two hours!”

We found a local train to Shrewsbury within 15 minutes and went to the allotted platform and sure enough an eight-carriage, new, all-electric train was going to our destination stopping at all the stations on the way! It was soon standing-room only but we arrived in Shrewsbury just after 5pm, where we found that there had been no trains out to Aberystwyth that afternoon! There was buses and by chance a minicab driver said he was going straight to Aberystwyth. We got into Aberystwyth just after 6.30pm and caught one of the last buses out to arrive home, phew!

Why all this confusion, so few rail carriages and trains cancelled? Through enquiries I have found that:

1. If a train is more than 30 minutes late coming to Aberystwyth or into Shrewsbury from Birmingham, it is cancelled and the signals and train positions could set a spiralling effect on the following timetable .

2. The European Rail Traffic Management System which took over the old key exchange signalling is made with European railway standards for trains that are all electric and travel at 140mph! Our trains are limited to 70mph and therefore the trains disappear off the signalling board!

3. The train to Birmingham International should stop only at Birmingham New Street, then Birmingham International only after Shrewsbury. This relieves the congestion on already-packed trains and stops the filling up of the train at New Street Station by local passengers for Telford and other stops before Shrewsbury.

It is hoped, I should think, by all passengers who use the Aberystwyth line will see an improvement soon.

Mohammad Tahla, Bryncopa, Llanarth

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