Something that may be of interest to some of my older readers (or the parents and grandparents of my younger readers). Until December 11th return train tickets from any station on the network are available for just £15 on Arriva Trains Wales to those over 55 years old.
I know this because some witch with a capita B offered me the deal for a journey to Cardiff from Llandudno on the day of my 51st birthday!
The ticket for younger people costs £54 - if I was too poor to be proud I could have gone to the capital and returned for just £15! I refused the offer!
Have I gained a conscience since that time long ago, when I use to take a bus to Barmouth as a 17 year old teenager and insisted to the driver that I was under 16 in order to get a child's fair, before insisting to the landlord of the Last Inn that I was over 18 in order to get a pint?
Am I just a proud old fool for refusing the offer of a cheaper ticket because the ticket seller thought that I look older than I am?
No!
The cost of my train ticket for this journey will be paid by through Crown expenses, so I don't give a fiddler's how much it costs!
But there may be a shopping trip to Cardiff by a young man unlucky enough to look over 55 y.o. before December 11th!
Showing posts with label Cardiff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cardiff. Show all posts
25/09/2010
18/04/2007
Flying South
In the business section of today's Daily Post there is a profile of Basil O'Fee the commercial director of Highland Airways. Highland Airways is the company that will run the new air link between Valley and Cardiff.
As one can imagine Mr O'Fee is very exited about his new project and enthuses about the huge difference the service will make. He believes that the service will "finally link" north and south Wales and unite the country.
There is no doubt that one of the difficulties that the Assembly has faced from its inception is that Wales is not perceived to be a cohesive nation by many of its citizens, and that one of the reasons for that lack of cohesion is the difficulty in travelling from north to south or south to north.
Unlike Mr O'Fee I can't see the new air link playing a major role in resolving this difficulty. The air service doesn’t link north and south Wales - it just links one point in the north with another point in the south. Great if you want to go to Cardiff from Holyhead, but just as awkward as any other form of travel to somebody who wants to go to Merthyr from Llanrwst or to Porthmadog from Carmarthen.
The much lauded and heavily subsidies north to south rail link suffers from the same problem. It serves the north Wales coast and the south Wales coast but because the actuall north-south part of the journy is through England it provides nothing for the rest of the country.
The only real answer to the problem of north south travel is to grasp the nettle that all parties are too faerfull of the anti-road lobby to propose - to upgrade the A470 to dual carriageway / motorway standard. All other proposals are just money wasting sops that tinker at the edges of the problem.
As one can imagine Mr O'Fee is very exited about his new project and enthuses about the huge difference the service will make. He believes that the service will "finally link" north and south Wales and unite the country.
There is no doubt that one of the difficulties that the Assembly has faced from its inception is that Wales is not perceived to be a cohesive nation by many of its citizens, and that one of the reasons for that lack of cohesion is the difficulty in travelling from north to south or south to north.
Unlike Mr O'Fee I can't see the new air link playing a major role in resolving this difficulty. The air service doesn’t link north and south Wales - it just links one point in the north with another point in the south. Great if you want to go to Cardiff from Holyhead, but just as awkward as any other form of travel to somebody who wants to go to Merthyr from Llanrwst or to Porthmadog from Carmarthen.
The much lauded and heavily subsidies north to south rail link suffers from the same problem. It serves the north Wales coast and the south Wales coast but because the actuall north-south part of the journy is through England it provides nothing for the rest of the country.
The only real answer to the problem of north south travel is to grasp the nettle that all parties are too faerfull of the anti-road lobby to propose - to upgrade the A470 to dual carriageway / motorway standard. All other proposals are just money wasting sops that tinker at the edges of the problem.
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