GWENT’s newest railway service has been suspended indefinitely – less than a month after opening.

The Crosskeys to Newport railway link – which opened on December 12 – has not run since January 5 after being one of the latest to be hit by the reduced service timetable put in place by Transport for Wales.

The service itself was cancelled on January 4 due to a lack of resources but from January 5 onwards, it has not been in service due to the latest timetable cuts – which saw a further 10-15 per cent reduction in services across Wales due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

It is not yet known when the service will resume, but Transport for Wales have said they are reviewing the situation regularly.

Anyone who is wishing to travel between the stations is able to use their ticket on the Stagecoach 151 and 56 services – or can get a train into Cardiff and change at Cardiff to go on to Newport.

MORE NEWS:

Jan Chaudhry-Van de Velde, managing director of TfW Rail, said: “We are very much dealing with the Omicron wave of Covid infections and, like many public service organisations, have seen a major rise in colleague absences over the last few weeks.

“It’s fundamental we continue to run as reliable a service as possible for our customers and therefore we are introducing a revised timetable from 3 January, reducing the risk of late notice cancellations.

“Wherever we can, we’ll use additional carriages made available due to the reduced timetable to run longer trains, which will help with social distancing. We’ll also provide supplementary road transport, where possible.

“We appreciate this will be frustrating for some customers, and we have not taken this decision lightly. We ask that all customers check online before they travel and follow current government advice. Our aim is to restore the timetable as soon as absence rates caused by this wave of the pandemic allow.”

Customers who have already purchased tickets for services affected by this change will be able to use their tickets on alternative TfW rail services. Alternatively, they will be able to request a refund by visiting www.tfw.wales.