Originally Posted by
Optimistic Nick
I left in 2000 but the city has improved enormously in that time. Up until about a year ago, anyway. When were you last back? The city centre suddenly feels like it’s in decline and very dilapidated. I go back a few times a year and the last trip was quite shocking. The public transport system is a joke: the city has a train system but runs toy trains on it. The buses have been decimated. I used to travel in easily by public transport 20 years ago. I had to drive this time, the public transport is simply ineffective now. The road system is fragile beyond belief- the fact they are growing the city with no development of the roads or transport system is ridiculous. Llandaff was always a bottleneck but you might as well walk now- buses aren’t going to get through that mess, and the train system is a joke. And they are piling thousands more houses out towards radyr with no plan for the infrastructure. Llandaff is going to be a mess. It’s so frustrating that a city with so many natural advantages has been so badly mismanaged for so long. I still love Cardiff as a city and I still think it’s the best “do everything in an hour” city centre in the country, and it still has unique things like the arcades. But whereas it has seemingly resisted the decline suffered by other cities since the emergence of Amazon until recently, it’s also seemingly spent the last year or so catching up bloody fast .
All that said- I do agree it’s still a great place to live. I just think it’s really missed a trick that might have seen it rise rapidly to be one of the best places to work and live in the country. I appreciate none of this is really what the OP’s post is about but it really boils my piss as a (now) outsider to watch it al happen
Reply With Quote