Thursday, 23 October 2014

PREPARATION, ANTICIPATION, FRUSTRATION…


With another round of eagerly anticipated autumn rugby internationals set to run through November (aside from a collective fingers crossed) across much of the former county Gwent (and no doubt elsewhere) rugby fans and rail users will be preparing themselves for the ordeal of trying to get into Cardiff on overcrowded (or full) trains). I have no doubt that the franchise holder will run short trains, which by the time they reach the stations (e.g. Abergavenny, Pontypool, Cwmbran, Chepstow, Caldicot, Severn Tunnel Junction and Newport) in the green and pleasant old county of Gwent, will be so full of people that passengers cannot board. Every year in recent years it has been the same with the same old lame excuses being rolled out by the franchise holders to why there was no space, why the trains were short, etc. The real reason for the shoddy service is about profits, extra trains and extra carriages have to be rented and this hits profits and dividends.  The day that the rail franchise (in Wales and the marches) is run as a not for dividend profit franchise cannot come soon enough. 

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