Russell George, AM for Montgomeryshire, has written to Edwina Hart, the Welsh Government’s Minister for Transport and Powys County Council to highlight the lack of integrated connections between buses and trains, particularly between the bus service from Llanidloes to Newtown and the train services from local train stations.
Mr George said:
“I have been contacted by a number of constituents who have reported the lack of integrated connections between buses and trains in Mid Wales.
“The bus from Rhayader to Shrewsbury via Llanidloes, Caersws and Newtown runs every two hours in both directions and I have been informed that the bus is very slightly but critically out of sync with the train connections in both directions.
“It arrives in Caersws one minute before the train is due to leave. For the returning train, it leaves Caersws four minutes after the train arrives. As the bus stop is quite a distance from the train station, it means that people miss their connections.
“As a result, people are regrettably forced to use the car to make their train connection, rather than use public transport, causing additional parking issues in Caersws in particular.
“Whilst the additional train services are proving to be popular, it is a shame that there continues to be a problem integrating these with the bus services to allow residents to use both forms of public transport.”