ON DECEMBER 23, Newport Bus announced that the long-awaited new Market Square Bus Station would be opening on December 28. On December 24, a write-up in the Argus stated that the Welsh Government had funded the project to the tune of £900,000.

What a huge disappointment it has turned out to be! There is no way that the ‘building’ can merit being called a bus station. It is nothing more than a very expensive, elongated bus shelter. It has no back or sides. Passengers cannot wait in comfort for their bus. They have to freeze and get battered by the wind. The seating is totally unsuitable for the elderly. The front panels are frosted glass which means that passengers cannot see their bus approaching or whether the bus that they are boarding is the correct bus. Each stand has only one small doorway that passengers both boarding and alighting have to use.

The designers should have gone to view the new bus station in Swansea before commencing work on this. They would then have learned how to design a bus station that is fit for public use and fit for a city. I would like to see them stand and wait for a bus in the building they have designed. A driver told me that this is not a bus station – that that will be ready in two years. I for one hope that it is nothing like the new bus station in Market Square.

L Hayes, Beaufort Road, Newport