First Great Western rail strike disruption for south Wales

First Great Western RMT union members in Cardiff walked out on Wednesday evening

Rail users across south Wales face continued disruption as a result of industrial action on First Great Western (FGW) services.

The 48-hour strike began on Wednesday evening after the RMT union said last-minute talks had failed.

The strike is also likely to affect fans heading to the first Ashes test match in Cardiff.

The dispute centres on plans for guards and buffet car services on FGW's new Hitachi Inter City Express trains.

The dispute is over plans to scrap guards and buffet cars on new trains

How services will be affected in south Wales

• Between London Paddington and Cardiff via Bristol Parkway, services will extend to Swansea only at peak times, when there will be one train an hour

• Cardiff to Taunton services will not run in both directions. Customers for those services will be able to travel to Bristol Parkway and change at Bristol Temple Meads station to Weston-Super-Mare/Taunton

• Arriva Trains Wales are expecting their services between Cardiff and Swansea to be busy during the period of industrial action and are looking to add extra capacity and services where possible

• Tickets will be accepted on Arriva Trains Wales services on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 July between Carmarthen and Swansea, Swansea and Newport, Newport to Hereford and Newport to Cheltenham

Speaking after the talks ended on Wednesday, Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said: "The company still feel that the configuration of the new super express trains is out of their control and that it would be in their best interests to have 'driver-only' operations and to remove the buffet cars.

"That position is totally unacceptable and the union is clear that the design of the new fleet of trains is a matter for First Group and that there is still time to modify the rolling stock," he said.

A FGW spokesman said: "Progress has been made, sadly not enough progress for the RMT to be able to cancel their strike at short notice."