Machynlleth Town Council states it “deplores” Transport for Wales’ (TfW) plans to cut train services to the Cambrian Line.

In the April town council meeting councillors unanimously voted to write to TfW bosses over their “extreme concern” for the plans potential impact on the town community.

In mid-April TfW announced cuts to four services daily in winter, two in each direction, between Machynlleth and Pwllheli from December 2024, along with other cuts.

A summer hourly service between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury which was promised in 2019 will meanwhile not be introduced until 2026.

Councillor Llinos Griffiths said: “With cuts like these to the service, what will the repercussions be, what will happen to the staff?

“TfW has cited ‘low useage’ as the reason for the cuts, but I’ve talked to many staff who say the services are well used year round.

“Machynlleth is a railway town.

“Once they start cutting services where will it end?”

The council intend to write “in the strongest terms”, addressing TfW as well as Montgomeryshire MP Craig Williams and MS Russell George and electoral candidates.

Other councillors stated concern over the impact to working peoples commutes, whilst bemoaning the push back of the long promised hourly service on the Cambrian Line.

The cuts would include the 05.07 service from Machynlleth to Barmouth and the 06.45 return.

The proposals are to change the 21.47 from Machynlleth to Pwllheli to 20.55 and the return from 20.26 to 19.30, and to only run these services from March to December each year.

Transport for Wales however stated that compared to the 441 mainline services they ran in 2018, there new plans will include 512 services in winter and 528 in summer.

TfW wrote in a statement: “Whilst, long term, we are going to be running more services, the review has seen us make some difficult decisions including the removal of a small number of services that have very low passenger demand, so that we can use those resources to better meet demand elsewhere (either being elsewhere in the day, on the route, or elsewhere on the network).

“We’ve also taken the decision to defer some of our commitments made before the Covid-19 Pandemic, for putting in place more services on certain routes.”

However MS Mabon ap Gwynfor said TfW was “disenfranchising comunities”: “There is now a clear impression in rural Wales that this Government has turned its back on our rural communities.”

Have your say by completing the TfW survey by 13 May here.