‘I’ve lost hundreds of pounds in wages because I’m always late for work’: Merthyr Tydfil bus passengers criticize ‘chaotic’ service

Bus passengers in Merthyr Tydfil described “chaotic” service as they waited hours for transport at the town’s new station. Construction on the £11 million bus interchange began in 2019, with a subsequent opening in May 2021 when services moved from the former Victoria Street station.

However, since its highly anticipated opening, local residents have complained that the service operated by Stagecoach has drastically deteriorated, with some routes now operating with fewer buses per hour. WalesOnline visited the Swan Street depot on Tuesday after receiving over 100 messages on social media about late buses (if at all) causing chaos.

Arriving around 10.15am, we were greeted by a sizable queue on the departure of the T4 bus bound for Cardiff. They told us that before there were four buses an hour, but in recent months they have been reduced to two.

Merthyr Tydfil is examining plans for a major railway station extension with a new platform

Also, a lot of people in line seemed stressed and we were told the 10:03am bus didn’t show up. A waiting man, who declined to be named, said he had lost £100 of his wages last month because bus delays and no-shows meant he was regularly late for work. A Stagecoach spokesman said ongoing work on the A465 was causing “significant disruptions and delays” to services on and around the Merthyr-Tydfil route.

The maintenance engineer said: “I’ve taken buses to Cardiff for the last six years. Ever since this bus station opened, it’s been nothing but chaos. The first bus does not appear every morning. Together with the strike train. I’m losing about £50 a week. I reached out to Stagecoach about this and all I got was a generic response. There is no one here to help you at the bus station to ask questions.

“Today I have been waiting since 9:45 in the morning. When I get to work, I’ll be paid by the hour. This morning the website said all buses depart from Merthyr. On all screens, the time does not indicate whether the bus is arriving. The trains have spare buses, but I can’t take them because they take two hours. January was terrible. I’ve lost £100 in wages since January.”

We met him again at 10:30 am. Still waiting and with a queue growing behind him, he said the next bus wouldn’t arrive until 11:03 am. In a similar vein, we spoke to a young woman who said she would now miss her interview and another called Leanne Jansen who said she was going to move to England to escape the bus service between Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff so she is always late for work .

The 38-year-old woman said she had been waiting since 9:50 am. “I take the bus here every day. They are late every day. They were 15 minutes late yesterday. So when we got back from Cardiff to Merthyr six hours later it was still running late because of the beatings,” he said. “Today you are 20 minutes late. As the train strikes continue, the bus, which replaces the tracks, it takes two hours to get to Cardiff. I have to catch the train to my job in Bristol at 11.30am. I have to be at my job at 2pm in Bristol and that’s not going to happen now. Now I have to move to England due to the impact in my work.’

Someone queuing for the T4 bus told us that two other problematic routes included route 33 from Merthyr Tydfil to Galon Uchaf (via Penydarren) and route 35 to Rydibedda (via Punt and Dowlace).

At 11am we caught up with Tammy-Lee Ashton, who said she was waiting to catch Flight 35 home from Dawleys after school and shopping. He said his bus was supposed to leave at 11am but there was no sign of him as we talked. He told us he had a doctor’s appointment later that day and was worried about missing it.

The 28-year-old said: “I take the bus here five days a week to go to school. I miss school races and doctor’s appointments and MRIs, and then you’re taken off the waiting list. I tried to take a taxi, but taking a taxi at this time is also impossible. The bus should arrive, but it doesn’t. This is ridiculous. It affects my mental health, cold, and it affects my kids. It’s chaos in everyone’s routine.

“I see the same people waiting here every day and they all make fun of the drivers, but it’s not their fault. This has been a problem since the construction of the new bus station. There is a snack bar here, but the snack bar is closed and you have to pay 20p to use the toilet while you wait. I used to wait for over an hour and a half. I spoke to Stagecoach about this and they told me the issue was a lack of drivers.

Mary McDonald said she takes the bus to Sefna Coad once a week. A 79-year-old woman said that about two weeks ago her bus did not arrive. She said: “I waited for half an hour. I can’t walk that far, I know my house is only a kilometer away, but I have leg problems. My husband took me to Sefna.”

“When you have asthma and the weather is cold, it’s very inconvenient. This has been going on for a long time. I know the road works aren’t helping. There was a woman at the bus stop who said to me, ‘You’. re just not sure when they will come out now. they are coming,” and he watches from his house to see if anyone is leaving. They say we should use public transport as much as possible, but that’s what’s happening. If I had taken an earlier bus it would have been too early for me. I used to go there, but parking is really bad.

Linda Poles said she doesn’t drive, so she uses buses and takes different routes. She said that in January there was about a 50% chance her bus would show up, but the situation has improved slightly in recent weeks. When we spoke to her on Tuesday, she said she had come to catch the bus earlier in case she didn’t show up.

A 71-year-old man said: “I take the bus regularly and it often doesn’t show up. If I need to be somewhere, I always catch the bus earlier if I don’t show up. Today I got on the bus at 11:03 in the morning. I don’t mind if you don’t come because I can take the bus at 11:33. This one is scary. I usually take the bus into town since I live in Sefn Koed. Before the pandemic there were four buses an hour, but now there are only two. There is also interruption on the A470. I take the T4 to Cardiff. I know some people waited an hour for the bus, I won’t wait that long. I’m not, I’m impatient so I’ll walk to Sefn if it’s not raining and then take a taxi.

A spokesman for Stagecoach South Wales said: “The A465 dual carriageway project is causing significant interruptions and delays to our services in and around Merthyr Tydfil. Our teams continue to work hard to keep the vast majority of services running and passengers connected on our most popular routes. We welcome any feedback from our customers about the service. You can contact us via the feedback forms on the Stagecoach website or on Twitter @StagecoachWales.

“Our teams provide early updates and share outage information on our @StagecoachWales Twitter account, giving our customers the opportunity to seek alternative arrangements if needed. We will continue to update our passengers regularly on our website and social media. and we’re working hard to restore full service in all regions as quickly as possible, giving you advance notice of any planned changes to our services. We would like to thank all of our passengers for their patience.”

Source: Wales Online