Wales Easter Bank Holiday travel chaos on roads and trains

  • Published
Traffic on the A40
Image caption,
Long queues built up on the A40 after it was closed

Major travel problems affected Easter Monday bank holiday drivers and train passengers in parts of Wales.

Dyfed-Powys Police warned of "high volumes of traffic" after a serious crash closed the A40 in both directions between St Clears and Carmarthen.

The crash happened at 04:45 BST and the road reopened about seven hours later.

Meanwhile, Transport for Wales (TfW) issued a "do not travel" warning for trains on the south Wales main line until at least 13:00 on Monday.

While services resumed after 13:00, the rail operator said trains were "still subject to residual disruption" and urged commuters to check before they travelled.

TfW blamed "signalling and power issues" between Bridgend and Llanelli and said it was unable to run services between Cardiff and Carmarthen, and on the Heart of Wales line between Swansea and Shrewsbury.

Services on the Maesteg and Vale of Glamorgan lines were also affected.

Image caption,
Bank holiday motorists faced long delays after the crash on the A40

TfW said there was "extremely limited replacement road transport" available.

Tickets bought for travel on Monday will be valid on Tuesday, and TfW said "customers are encouraged to travel tomorrow if possible".

It added: "Services on the Marches line through Shrewsbury are also expected to be very busy today due to an earlier incident of suspected cable theft which disrupted a number of early morning services".

Elsewhere in Wales, there were reports of slow and heavy traffic at places including the A487 between Llanfarian and Rhydyfelin in Ceredigion, A458 at Welshpool, Powys, A55 in Flintshire and Conwy, M4 at Newport, A483 Wrexham by-pass, and A438 Fabian Way into Swansea.