People living in Maesteg recently shared their frustration with Transport For Wales after months of limited bus services. The town, which has a population of around 20,000 people, has also suffered with issues including cancelled and delayed trains on a regular basis.

MS Huw Irranca-Davies received a letter from from Transport for Wales' CEO James Price after meeting with him to discuss the frustration and challenges in the area.

In the letter, Mr Price highlighted some of the challenges passengers have been facing including, "timetable limitations and turnaround times at Maesteg." For the latest Bridgend news, sign up to our newsletter here

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A meeting is also set to be held on April 25 in Pencoed to discuss what more action can be taken to reduce disruption. James Price wrote in the letter: "TfW Acknowledge the frustration and challenges passengers have faced caused by cancelled trains and delays and apologised for recent service disruptions."

The issues raised include specific service challenges including timetable limitations and turnaround times at Maesteg; disruption caused by services operating on the South Wales mainline; rolling stock availability and the introduction of new Class 197 trains; train cleanliness and platform maintenance."

The organisation detailed its planned actions which included; investigating connecting Maesteg and Ebbw Vale services to improve turnaround times and reduce cancellations, developing a plan for handling cancelled trains, prioritising Bridgend as a station with more onward travel options, collaborating with Network Rail to minimise disruption from the South Wales Main Line and reviewing cleaning procedures for trains and platforms.

Transport For Wales has been asked by WalesOnline why the number of delays and cancellations are higher in these areas and what the onward travel options from Bridgend station might look like. A spokesperson replied: "There are no specific recurring reasons for services being disrupted, cancellations and delays have been caused by a mixture of on-the-day issues with trains, along with infrastructure faults on both the Cardiff to Maesteg and Cardiff to Cheltenham portions of the route.

"Our contingency planning team are considering options as part of a dedicated task group to understand what decision is best to take should a train need to be cancelled on the way to/from Maesteg. Whilst we will do everything in our power to minimise cancellations, we recognise that Bridgend serves as a better public transport hub than Tondu, where trains have been terminated previously, as there are more buses and taxis readily available for onward travel in the event of a cancellation."

In February we introduced brand new trains onto the route to use alongside our existing trains and this has helped to improve the punctuality and reliability of services, although we recognise there is still significant improvement needed.

People told us in January that the level of public transport has almost been reduced to that of a "hamlet in the middle of nowhere" over the course of the past few years, and their frustrations with delays have not subsided.

One person posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on March 14 : "Why does the 20:15 Maesteg train always leave late? Always making my journey an hour longer, and you want people to use the trains, sort it out."

There also seems to be concern with the amount of people trying to fit onto the trains throughout the day. Someone else said on February 24: "Any reason you continue to run your oldest fleet of trains from Maesteg to Cardiff in the mornings? Full by time it arrives at Bridgend!"