FOLLOWING several complaints from people wanting to travel between Cardiff and Aberystwyth by bus, AM ELIN JONES decided to see for herself what it is like for commuters...

This week I caught the 8.21 T1C from Aberaeron to Cardiff. This is the only daily (except Sundays) bus service between Aberystwyth and Cardiff. In August last year, the 701 coach service run by Lewis of Llanrhystud ended, when the company went into administration.

With bus users and the county council, I spent the next few months persuading the Welsh Government’s transport secretary to reinstate the service. It is much-needed by students, non-car-users and the elderly visiting relatives along the M4 corridor.

I was very pleased when the Welsh Government therefore announced that it would fund First Cymru to provide one daily replacement service. This commenced on 5 December last year.

Almost immediately, I began to receive complaints from users regarding the quality and safety of the service. Many constituents have told me that they will never use the service again.

“Many people have no choice but to use the service, against their better judgement.

On Monday, I decided to make my weekly journey to Cardiff using the T1C. I usually use my car for this journey, although I have used the 701 coach and rail in the past. I am a frequent user of the T1 and T5 services in Ceredigion.

The first thing I noticed about the service was that it doesn’t appear on the Traveline app that I use to find bus times, so I had to take a bit of a risk that the 8.21 from Aberaeron would actually take me to Cardiff and not stop at Carmarthen. That was indeed the case.

The bus was about half full in Aberaeron.

It was a miserable, rainy day. The windows were steamed up for the entirety of the journey. The bus driver had to wipe down the bus door on occasion to be able to have full driver visibility.

The bus was cold. I don’t usually feel the cold, but by Carmarthen my feet had turned to stone.

The vehicle is a bus rather than a coach. It is designed for short within-city or between-village routes. It is not a proper long-distance coach with a degree of comfort. It has no seat belts and we must have been the only people on the M4 hurtling down the motorway at 70mph without access to a safety belt.

That cannot be right, and I need to check to see if it is even lawful. It certainly isn’t acceptable.

The journey time for a person travelling its entire length is four hours, 35 minutes between Aberystwyth and Cardiff. There is no toilet on board, and this must make it impossible for some to use this service.

The bus is a strange mix of passengers on short journeys and long-distance travellers. Some long-distance passengers were carrying suitcases and there is no proper place to store this luggage.

Some passengers were using the bus to get to work locally, others to get to Bro Pedr School. Many were using the service to go shopping to Carmarthen.

Only a very few of us used the service from Ceredigion to Cardiff. The bus obviously stops in Swansea, strangely bypasses Port Talbot (and I’ve received complaints that Port Talbot has been dropped from the previous timetable) and then stops at McArthur Glen and, bizarrely, the Pencoed Junction. Along the M4 it is picking up a collection of random passengers who wish to catch a bus to Cardiff, but, presumably, have many other local options for this service.

On the positive side, I got to Cardiff Bay on time. The passengers were friendly, and the bus drivers were helpful.

My positives end there. No toilet, no safety belt, no heating, no comfort - at times I thought we weren’t that different to a lorry load of cattle hurtling down the M4.

I’m pleased, of course, that the service was reinstated last December, but the service needs to be urgently replaced by a proper long-distance coach that provides safety, warmth and comfort.

The Welsh Government has committed to reviewing this service within six months, and I will be pressing for this upgrade, alongside the need for it to become a seven-day service.

The people of Ceredigion deserve no less.