CALLS are being made for a train company to operate bilingually after claims there is no Welsh being used on the Cambrian line service.

Concerns were raised by Cllr Elwyn Thomas after he told his fellow members of Porthmadog Town Council that he was disappointed to hear only English announcements being made by the Arriva Trains Wales service. The system which displays what stations the service stops at is currently in English and claims have been made that the announcements by the conductor are also in English.

Cllr Thomas said: “We have pushed for a bilingual service before on this and still nothing has been done.”

Cllr Selwyn Griffiths, chair of Porthmadog Town Council, and who is also chair of the Cambrian Coast Railway Committee, said the use of Welsh on the trains is something they are going to be pushing hard for this year.

An Arriva Trains Wales spokesperson said: “Unfortunately the text recognition technology is not available in the Welsh language for the automated on board messages however we do encourage our Welsh speaking conductors to make announcements in Welsh and converse in Welsh with our customers whenever possible or required.”

See the full story in this week’s Arfon/Dwyfor edition of the Cambrian News