Transport for Wales wants Carmarthen railway station to work better as the place where its TrawsCymru coaches and its trains meet, and is asking passengers what that should look like.
Its survey, open until 12 October, covers two things: the facilities at the station for people catching trains, and how the bus and rail services there “can be better worked together”, in the words of the consultation page. TfW staff will be at the station from 8am to 6pm on Thursday to take views in person.
The timing is the TaithCymru coach. From 25 October the new two-hourly express to Aberystwyth and Bangor will call at Carmarthen railway station on Station Road, according to the Welsh Government’s published list of stops.
Tickets go on sale on 6 October. The T1 to Aberystwyth already stops at the station.
Nathaniel Owen, TfW’s senior customer operations manager at Carmarthen, said the coach launch made it “definitely the right time for us to understand what improvements at Carmarthen railway station would enhance the overall customer experience”.
No money, yet
The consultation page is franker than the press release. “It’s important to remember funding isn’t guaranteed yet,” it says. “By having your say you can help us support our case to secure funding to propose improvements based on your feedback.”
So there is no designed or costed scheme; the ten-question survey is being used to build the case for one.
TfW’s release calls the station “a key interchange between TrawsCymru coach services and the rail network” and one of the busiest in the region, linking the town to trains for Swansea, Cardiff, Manchester and London and to Pembrokeshire.
Mr Owen said: “We really want to hear the thoughts of the people who care most about Carmarthen railway station: the people who use it. Your views will help us shape its future as a gateway to west Wales.”
The line that closed, and what’s been funded
Traws Link Cymru has campaigned since 2013 to reopen the Carmarthen to Aberystwyth railway, closed in the Beeching cuts; a 2018 Welsh Government study priced it at £775m and judged it only “socially viable”. The £2m committed to TaithCymru covers one year of running, with a decision on a second to follow.
Eight coaches have been bought for the route, which follows the T1 corridor through Lampeter and Aberaeron before heading north, and the government says the run to Bangor should take under five hours. The first coach was shown off at Bangor station in August.
The region’s transport map, which went to councillors this month, puts west Wales station upgrades in a later phase with no funding attached, and this year’s £24.7m regional pot is paying for a new bus and rail interchange at Llanelli.
Carmarthen is getting smaller council-side sums from the Welsh Government‘s regional transport grants for this year: £200,000 for an active travel route through the station and £175,000 for a cycle hub in the town.
The station has two platforms, a booking office, staff around the clock, a changing places toilet, car and cycle parking and a help point, TfW’s page says.
The survey takes five to ten minutes and is open to anyone who travels to, from or through Carmarthen, including people who don’t use the station at all.
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