Barclay Davies, Director for Cymru/Wales, Bus Users UK

There’s a lot of work needed if we’re going to get more people to connect to rail by bus. We will win if we make it the easiest thing to do

I can guarantee you that at any event we go to, we get asked ‘why don’t the buses connect with the trains, or the trains with the buses.’ And even when the operator of the buses and trains are the same company, I’ve heard people say that they don’t talk to each other. I’m really pleased to hear of the work GWR and others are doing because that’s the way forward. If we don’t do that, the car will be the winner and that’s not what any of us want.

There are good examples of interchange with bus and rail outside station entrances – Bristol Parkway, Didcot Parkway, Watford Junction bus interchange. But there are places as well, like Cardiff, where you have to haul your suitcase across the city centre if you’re connecting by bus. So there’s a lot of work needed.

For some of the new leisure travellers, travelling by rail is a new experience. I’d like to see more engagement on how people get to the station. Not being a commuter or a business traveller, they probably won’t drive to the station, they’ll probably get the bus, cycle or walk, or get a taxi, so it would be really interesting to get some research on how they get to the station.

If we make it the easiest thing to do, as well as the right thing sustainably, we all win. And we do our bit towards getting towards the emissions targets. A bus is like a piece of spaghetti – if you stretch it too far, it will snap. But if you start with passengers, and the key locations where they need to connect, and work on those connections, it’s a great start to improving things.

In Wales, if you travel from Aberwystmth to Camarthon you have to go via Shrewesbury. Transport for Wales is running a pilot scheme where the information display boards in Aber rail station will only display the bus option, and on the bus, it gives you the times of the next trains when you come into Aber. And it’s all on one ticket.