Local resident Sean Rees has called for improvements to be made at Llanelli Railway Station claiming our communities are often forgotten about and the current conditions at the station are another example of that.
Currently the ticket office and toilets at the station are open from 06.10-12.40 on a Monday-Friday and 07.00 to 13.30 on a Saturday and are closed on Sunday.
“It’s completely unacceptable. As someone who uses the railway a lot these conditions cannot continue. Last Sunday, an elderly lady was unable to view the timetable boards at the station and as a result of no staff being available she was unable to obtain any information she needed regarding the service she was waiting for. I managed to help her but how many more cases are there like this?
“Given that winter is approaching, surely the seating area in the ticketing office could be opened up so that passengers are not left shivering outside in the cold while waiting for a train to arrive. There should also be toilets available 24/7 for people to use. Apparently the decision to lock the toilets was after reports of antisocial behaviour. Why should the reckless actions of a minority result in people who use the rail network being penalised? Given the problems, there must therefore be a necessity to have additional policing resources to patrol our communities.
“The frequency of services between West Wales and Swansea, especially later in the evenings, also needs to be looked at. Currently the further west you go on the network, the worse it gets. I will be writing to Arriva Trains Wales to highlight all of these problems.
“I find it staggering that rail fares are set to increase again by 1.9% next year and yet at the same time people often have to cope with lengthy delays, overcrowded carriages and unacceptable conditions at our stations. I strongly believe that public ownership of our railways is the way forward where the profits instead of going into the hands of private companies can be reinvested into better services for our communities. A transfer of powers over railways to Wales including the transfer of full funding for our railway infrastructure is also well overdue.”
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