At one time or another, almost every contributor to the Cambrian News has opined on the woeful transport links to and around mid-Wales. I certainly have. Probably will again so long as it remains quicker for my Suffolk-based Mother to reach Barbados than venture to Aberystwyth.

Welsh Labour’s Mark Drakeford seeks to explain our situation in suggesting that “easy routes between north and south have never been possible in Wales”. Channelling the simplistic thinking of his inner Donald Trump, the First Minister elaborates, “in the end it’s just the nature of our geography. We’re a mountainous country. I sometimes read it said that if you flattened Wales out, we’d be maybe as big as France. It’s just that all our land is hilly up and down.”

What a crock. Swathes of France are vastly more mountainous than Wales. As are almost the entirety of Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Alpine regions each boasting a famously efficient and integrated public transport system.

What Drakeford actually means is, ‘we have never bothered and have now run out of money, so almost all major roadbuilding and road-safety projects in Wales are scrapped (er... over environmental concerns)’. That the Welsh government is yet to figure out how it will fund the critical-for-mid-Wales bus industry beyond the summer.

So, Drakeford’s stoic message is that we manage; “we have an effective train service, you can drive – it’s not the most straightforward of routes. But we’re used to it, it’s what we’ve dealt with for 2,000 years.”

Incorrect Mr Drakeford. There exists no ‘effective train service’ here, and on top of this, essential bus routes are being rapidly surrendered. This is not what you in Cardiff deal with; this is what we alone in mid-Wales deal with. And it should be noted that 2,000 years ago, the Romans completed a road from Chester to Caernarfon, along with many others, forming a network and investing more in improving transport links around these parts than Welsh Labour currently think feasible or fitting.

Mr Drakeford’s resigned utterings do not radiate the can-do attitude one hopes for in political leadership but are statements that illustrate precisely where mid-Wales sits among the priorities of Westminster-led politics. The reality that mid-Wales is caught in the unenviable paradox of not enough population to command better transport, but unable to maintain this small population without improved transport links. For there seems little doubt that long-term neglect of mid-Wales transport infrastructure contributes to the recently reported falling population of Ceredigion. Neglect set to continue with investment in roads curtailed without putting in place any plans for improving our public transport system. Those who remain here, assumed to be content staying home.

It appears that we in mid-Wales are expected to be mollified with the recent transport review’s laughable conclusion that expense lavished on the Shrewsbury-Birmingham train line will have knock-on benefits for mid-Wales. Apparently, we should be comforted by such measly crumbs. We should accept that unless one lives within a couple dozen miles of town, there is no such thing as a day trip to Aber. No such thing as a night out in Aber. A few miles inland and, “we’d love to come, but we can’t get home.”

So, our patch of Wales is set to remain cut off and hard to get around. With island-style intimacy and community. No one is ever ‘just passing through’ Aberystwyth so we will continue to be spared the prospect of surprise visitors; ‘we were in Liverpool, going to Cardiff on the express train, so here we are’ or ‘with Aber only an hour from Birmingham along that new amazing M44, we thought we’d drop by’.

Imagine Aberystwyth accessible for the day-tripper, becoming like Southend and Bognor Regis. Half a million Brummies moaning about the beach every bank holiday. That would change things. Think of the acres of new carparks we would need with an M470 running from Conwy to Cardiff. Great for business, certainly. Not so great for a peaceful writerly resident. Worse still, better transport links would rid me of my go-to excuse for rarely visiting anyone - too far, mate. I would need to develop an alternative convincing reason for not calling on friends and relatives in England. It is undiplomatic to explain I much prefer being here.

We can pine for new motorways, better roads, and faster rail links, but they won’t happen anytime soon, and as stated, be careful what you wish for. I would miss the isolation, miss our sense of independence. We are a neglected outback. Hard to reach, characterises our society, our business, and this is often why we live here. So perhaps, for now, we should embrace the reality of our wider dislocation and focus attention on us.

For us, re-establishing rural connectivity within mid-Wales is key for our dispersed society and struggling local businesses. So, eight shiny new electric buses running between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen are welcome replacements. But not nearly enough. How about hourly between Aberystwyth and Newtown, Aberaeron, Machynlleth, and other nearby towns business-boosting day-trippers might actually come from? Buses are under-used around here only because the service is so skeletal as to be useless. Invest in a regular, affordable, and dependable local public transport network and residents will use it. Weekend night bus anyone?