This month the Senedd’s cross party petition committee has been looking at a petition calling for a bus service from Abergavenny Bus Station to The Grange Hospital.

The petition highlights that when people are upset, anxious and extremely stressed, as either a patient or loved one, other options of transport are not always safe.

This petition chimes with the calls I’ve made for the Welsh Government to improve safety for everyone in society when they are travelling by public transport.

I recently challenged Cabinet Secretary for Transport Ken Skates during questions to deliver better and safer public transport for all.

Some months ago, I had a motion passed in the Senedd relating to improving access to bus and trains at stations, and also on those services.

I do worry that too many of our public spaces are designed in ways that exclude people: stations that rely on people being able to see obstacles or changes to timetables, poorly lit walkways that make women feel more vulnerable at night, and services that can be cancelled at short notice, leaving passengers stranded.

Because women, and people with disabilities, are not intrinsically vulnerable - it's the way that our public spaces are designed that creates that vulnerability.

I have pushed for changes with Transport for Wales to alter the processes they follow when cancelling services to be different during the winter months, so that passengers aren't stranded in isolated areas after dark. But we need to change the way we design the spaces that we are all meant to share.

I am pleased the Cabinet Secretary Ken Skates agreed to meet me to discuss the various issues about safety and accessibility to public transport, and I will certainly be pursuing this agenda in that meeting.

There are other changes that need to be seen locally, of course - the Welsh Government funded a trial bus service linking the Grange Hospital to Pontypool, Newbridge and Blackwood for a period of six months, but the money has now been cut. Too many of our towns and villages across the south east find it almost impossible to get to the Grange using public transport.

The government must bring forward urgent solutions to this problem – it’s affecting some of the most vulnerable people in our society, at some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.