LAST year, responsibility for the Cheltenham to Maesteg train service passed from Arriva Trains Wales to Transport for Wales – an operator owned by the Welsh Government.

As a daily user, I didn’t expect to see much difference.

Fast forward several months however and the rail service is very different.

Chronic delays, heavily overcrowded carriages and frequent cancellations have become the norm – with one train cancelled 17 times across October and November.

Letters of complaint from two county councils to the Welsh Government were both fully justified and appreciated by long-suffering passengers.

Compounding this, Forest commuters were hit last week with yet another round of fare hikes, leaving many questioning if rail really represents value for money anymore – £10.20 Lydney-Gloucester return?.

Personally though, I’d encourage optimism.

After all, these hikes are presumably needed to resolve current service issues. Presumably, with all this extra money, we can soon expect an improved customer experience, trains to arrive and depart on time, passenger overcrowding to end and cancellations confined to history.

A man can dream, I suppose?

– Harry Ives, Lydney.