Passenger fumes at TfW train service from Barry to Cardiff

A photo shows passengers crammed in like what one passenger described as “cattle”, on the Vale line to Cardiff Central.

Mr David Bradley aims to leave Bary Docks station and make it to Cardiff to catch the 8.38am connection to the city’s Fairwater area, where he works as a care home manager - however he says he rarely makes it on time.

In a damning assessment of a service he uses Monday to Friday, paying over £6 a ticket, Mr Bradley said Transport for Wales should be “ashamed”.

 “Time on time the Barry commuters are let down,” said Mr Bradley.

“The Barry to Cardiff train is always rammed like we are cattle, often to unsafe levels.

“Transport for Wales say they are working on it, however, we see no change.

"The Vale Line has 40-year-old stock that doesn’t have capacity for peak time services.”

Transport for Wales, in fact say they are working on it… explaining that, with £800m of investment, new trains will eventually be introduced to the Barry line – but not until at least the middle of next year.

A spokesperson for TfW said: “We would like to apologise to passengers who have travelled on busy services recently. All available carriages are in use and we’re working hard to add as much capacity as possible to peak-time services.

“We’re investing more than £800m in brand new trains for the Wales and Borders network to significantly improve capacity, reliability and the customer experience.

“Some of the new trains have already entered into passenger service and we will be continuing to add more over the coming months and years, including brand new trains to be used on the Vale of Glamorgan Line.”

Mr Bradley took a photo of his commute into Cardiff from Barry (Image: Andrew Bradley)

Barry Docks train station (Image: Google Maps)

Crammed at both ends, including Cardiff (pictured) (Image: David Bradley)

However, for Mr Bradley, it looks like he will have to wait for the improvements, costing him valuable wages.

“I have been late for work numerous times in the last two months, costing me a total of £80 in wages,” said Mr Bradley.

“Why should we pay £6.10 a day £130 a month for this kind of shoddy service? With a cost of living crisis, this is not acceptable.

“We demand better as fare-paying passengers.

“It’s deplorable and they should be ashamed.”

Do you use the trains from Barry to Cardiff? Have you suffered a similar experience to Mr Bradley? Do you think the service is in fact good, and not what is being reported? Let us know by emailing harry.jamshidian@newsquest.co.uk.