Rail Services in Mid and West Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 12 December 2017.

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Photo of Russell George Russell George Conservative 1:35, 12 December 2017

First Minister, I've received a large number of complaints from regular travellers on the Cambrian line operated by Arriva Trains Wales. There have been a large number of cancellations or part cancellations with no alternative bus service being provided, leaving passengers totally in the lurch. The cancellations often occur minutes before the train is due to depart, which, of course, makes it near impossible for passengers to make alternative arrangements. One of my constituents, Christopher Banks, is a student living in Newtown, studying in Shrewsbury, and he says in an e-mail to me that, 

'Cancellations of just the 7.38 service in November impacted me on the thirteenth, seventeenth, twentieth, twenty-first, twenty-seventh and the twenty-ninth.'

Can I ask, First Minister, do you think this is acceptable, and, if not, will you take this up, as I have done, with Arriva Trains Wales?