Rail line chaos

Network Rail really do need to account for the massive disruption being experienced by passengers on the Cardiff to Swansea line due to the overrun of engineering works to test a new signalling system.

The line will now be closed for the rest of the week, with services replaced by buses, despite the deadline for work to be completed expiring on Easter Monday.

As a regular traveller on the line, I appreciate the need for improvements to be made to the infrastructure but the patience of passengers is being sorely tested with the announcement that services are to be disrupted until the weekend when they were originally told that things would be back to normal by Tuesday at the latest.

Hundreds of people in Bridgend rely on an efficient rail service to get to work in Cardiff or Swansea. The replacement bus service is putting a lot of extra time onto their journeys. With the vast majority of children off school this week, a large number of families hoping to get out and about for the day are also being affected.

Network Rail needs to provide answers to passengers as to why they did not anticipate such an overrun. They need to conduct a full inquiry into why this has occurred and lessons need to be learnt to avoid this happening again in the future.

The events of the last few days are extremely damaging for the reputation of rail. At a time when we are trying to encourage people to use public transport as much as possible, passengers need to have full confidence that services are going to be returned to normal as soon as possible.