CLLR Alan Preest is right to label as a ‘Cinderella’ line the Gloucester to South Wales route.

At the moment I work in Cardiff Bay and live near Chaxhill, and would love to commute by rail except for needing to change trains twice in Cardiff and being put off by the sheer irregularity of the service.

Some trains are operated by Transport for Wales, others by Cross Country, and cancellations – which are known of in advance by TfW – are not substituted by an alternative bus.

Abandoned passengers seem not to matter one jot and the service interval doesn’t mean just waiting 15 minutes for the next train, but losing an hour or more.

TfW’s claim of a shortage of trains is utterly disingenuous.

The Valley Lines service to Rhymney is operated by DMUs (diesel multiple units).

However these are in short supply and are enhanced by trains made up of former Inter-City carriages hauled by locomotives which have been hired-in until next year.

If TfW cares about its customers (and potential customers), then it can easily hire another set of loco-hauled carriages to augment the Maesteg to Cheltenham route.

As for Great Western (which has no franchise obligation to the Cinderella line), there is a certain logic to looking at the Bristol-Gloucester service.

This is hourly, also originates at Westbury, Weymouth or Brighton and terminates alternately at Gloucester and Malvern.

It is proposed to be increased to a half-hourly service, so the Great Western franchise should be reviewed in order to extend the additional services to Lydney, Chepstow and (at least) Severn Tunnel Junction, if not to Newport.

– Rob Harris, Walmore Common.