Madam,

Dr John McTighe and I are once again bewailing bus connectivity in Wales. He is well aware of the shortcomings of the system and states this in meticulous detail (‘Change of bus time done for no reason at all’, letters, 2 August).

My observations are more broad as we don’t tend to travel far distances these days but it still shows the same lack of thought by ‘the powers that be’.

As ‘name and address supplied’ states ‘Still quite a few usable buses around’, letters, 2 August), they have correctly surmised I am local and aware of which bus to catch without changing. And yes, ‘there are quite a few usable buses around’ - but I wouldn’t like to have to wait unnecessarily for a bus when, for the want of a few minutes I could have been one step nearer my destination. Especially if that wait involved keeping any children safe (and amused!) on the pavement at the bus stops, not to mention keeping whatever luggage I was carrying close to me, watching and waiting for a connection.

This part of Wales attracts lots of holidaymakers which are crucial to our local economy as seen recently in Alban Square and, in my opinion, may be less likely to return if they’ve had a bad experience whilst travelling.

As mentioned in my June letter, the same thing was repeated recently. We saw the T1 to Lampeter come into Aberaeron from the north, and stop for the passengers. Meanwhile, the T5 from Cardigan approached Aberaeron - it came down the hill and around the one-way system of Alban Square. However, due to heavy traffic the T5 driver took a while to navigate into and out of the Square and into the bus bay - but as he was doing this the T1 set off towards Lampeter!

My question remains the same. Why did the driver heading for Lampeter not wait for those few extra minutes in case there were passengers heading from Cardigan to Lampeter or Carmarthen?

Due to the present free travel at the weekend, these buses are extremely popular with visitors and families and it would be a pity if this was offset by a negative encounter of travelling in this part of Wales.

Yours etc,

Sue Slocombe, Llanon.

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