Fears raised that rail passengers won't return to 'unreliable' train service
A rail users group says reliability concerns have been driving people away from the railways – with concerns that they may never return.
As the Shropshire Star's survey of rail users shows the levels of dissatisfaction with the service provided on the region's trains, Jeff Smith, the chair of the Shrewsbury Aberystwyth Rail Passengers Association, said there are significant worries over reliability and overcrowding.
Mr Smith said that opportunities were being missed, with rail's ability to contribute to a healthy, environmentally friendly and profitable society being lost.
He said: "Currently we are very concerned about the reliability of the service, about overcrowding, and short formations."
Mr Smith said there were also future worries that new rolling stock will not be able to operate on the Cambrian line because only a limited number of the fresh trains would be able to run with the route's ERTS signal system,
Such a situation risks causing more reliability issues by limiting the pool of trains which can run on the line.
He said: "Going forward we are concerned about how many of the new trains will be able to run on the Cambrian line and how the rail company can provide a good service."
The chairman said the current situation was driving people away from trains – and making it less likely they will return.
He said: "We want to see a reliable, dependable railway and we think that if the rail service improves then this will help people get into employment and provide a modal shift to get people out of cars, helping the environment, traffic congestion, and it is in everyone's interests for the rail service to improve.
"At the moment we see people having to leave jobs because they can't get there because the rail service is so unreliable.
"We see people going out and buying a car and not going back to public transport because they do not see they can rely on it."
He said that recent gains in public confidence had also been squandered.
He said: "We had quite a few years of rising passenger numbers but with the current levels of reliability there is certainly anecdotal evidence that people have been leaving the railway and it will be very difficult to attract them back."
