Stops cancelled and boarding limited as Transport for Wales struggles with demand

A Transport for Wales service from Holyhead to Cardiff Central on Saturday, December 6, faced severe overcrowding, prompting operational restrictions that left passengers frustrated.

The train, running nine minutes late, arrived at Prestatyn at 11.58am. Passengers on the platform were reportedly told by a train guard: “If no-one gets off, no-one gets on.” The same restriction was enforced again at Flint at 12.11pm, also nine minutes late.

One passenger described the situation as “ridiculous” and “mental,” adding: “I appreciate it’s going to be busier than usual on a Saturday in December, but I’ve never seen it this busy before. A child was crying on board while we were all packed like sardines into the carriages.”

The service also cancelled its scheduled stops at Ruabon, Chirk, Church Stretton, Ludlow, and Pontypool & New Inn en route to Cardiff.

A Transport for Wales spokesperson apologised for the delays and disruption, saying:

“The safety of our customers is always our highest priority and we're working to add as much capacity as possible to services over the festive period. However, when services become busy, we must on occasion make operational decisions and we apologise to customers affected by any service cancellations. Passenger demand was high over the weekend with a number of key events taking place across our network, including Wrexham's away fixture at Preston, Christmas markets, and Aintree races and we were unable to add extra capacity to all of our services. TfW continues to invest £800 million into brand-new trains for the Wales and Borders network and as more of these trains enter service, we will be able to add more capacity at peak times across the network. We're now looking ahead to this coming weekend to see what more can be done to provide as much capacity as possible for our customers.”

Image: Transport for Wales