Passengers warm to personal touch

Nick Dermody BBC News website

The 0856 GMT from Cardiff Central to Pontypridd was on time Rail improvements 'still needed' and your comments

My trip on an Arriva Trains Wales service to Pontypridd was uneventful for both me and my trusty travelling companion - my bicycle.

If anything, it was the bike that had the more personal treatment, with the guard tucking it in at the rear of the carriage by his little cubby hole.

My machine and I were reunited a couple of stops later when the carriage emptied of people and the guard levered it out, bringing it round to the double doors.

He was going that extra yard, which perhaps explains why Arriva Trains Wales has seen its satisfaction ratings, as given by customers in the autumn passenger survey, going up.

Certainly, those I spoke to before embarking on the 0856 GMT from Cardiff Central had few words of complaint.

The trains are normally on time, they are warm and the guards are quite polite and cheerful Fred Walters

Retired plumber Fred Walters, 78, was waiting with his wife to take their fortnightly trip to Treorchy to visit family.

He said: "The trains are normally on time, they are warm and the guards are quite polite and cheerful."

Mr Walters has been making the trip for some 10 years and said he had never found any difficulty buying tickets.

"I bought tickets for March this morning - the lady on the phone very kindly got them a bit cheap for me," he said.

Disability employment adviser Christine Lewis, 54, from Blackwood, was equally happy with the service.

"In the main, they are about right. You do get the odd blip but that's usually to do with the weather," she said.

Nor did Ms Lewis share in one of the quibbles about the frequency of some services.

'Too small'

"The trains in the other valley are every hour but mine is every 10 minutes," she said.

One professional observation she did make, however, was that she thought the train toilet doors were "too small" for wheelchair users.

Civil servant Bill Purvis, 46, said he had "no real complaints" when he took a fortnightly return trip from Abergavenny.

He said he accepted that the more frequent services in the morning started to thin out in the afternoon.

"It just means getting it at the right time," he said.

I did not have to wait long for my return from Pontypridd to Cardiff Central. After having the carriage to myself for 10 minutes, we were away.

And as I wheeled the bike off at Cardiff Central, another passenger was waiting to wheel his bike on.

Hopefully his trip was as uneventful as my own.

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