Arriva Trains Wales in top five for complaints
ARRIVA Trains Wales has received one of the highest rates of complaints among rail operators so far this year.
Latest figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) reveal that the company received 71 complaints per 100,000 passenger journeys.
That gives Arriva Trains Wales, which runs the Valleys Lines and other routes from Cardiff, the fifth highest rate of complaints per journey out of all operators in Britain.
The figures come as the company has been accused of packing commuters “like battery hens” on trains.
Commuters have said they have been unable to get on certain services because trains are too full.
Virgin Trains East Coast was top of the poll, with 165 complaints per 100,000 journeys, followed by Grand Central, which received 163.
CrossCountry, which also runs routes from Cardiff, fared slightly better, receiving 56 complaints per 100,000 journeys.
Meanwhile, Great Western had one of the lowest rates of complaints, with just 29 for every 100,000 journeys.
For the most part, complaints made to Arriva Trains Wales were due to the punctuality and reliability of the service.
However, problems such as not having enough space to sit or stand were also an issue.
These were also common complaints on other rail services. Across the board, passengers mostly complained about train punctuality and reliability.
Passenger groups have slammed the results, saying train operators need to keep up with the growing number of people who use trains.
Bruce Williamson, from Railfuture, said: “It would be very disappointing if there’s a drop in customer satisfaction.
“The train operators and the Government need to listen to the voices of their customers and take action to improve.
“There has been talk of Arriva being nationalised by the Welsh Government and this could be a case of ‘it’s the end of term, I don’t care’ attitude.
“We’re looking at a huge increase in passenger numbers over the past 20 years where passenger numbers have effectively doubled.
“That has not been matched by investment. We call on the Government not just to maintain funding but invest in the longer term and catch up with the growth in passenger numbers.”
David Sidebottom, passenger director at the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said: “Passengers in Wales have told us that they are less satisfied with punctuality, as well as how delays are handled, so these figures come as no surprise.
“We are working with the operator to push for better day-to-day performance, and better information when things go wrong.”
An Arriva Trains Wales spokesman said: “This figure relates to complaints handled between April and June 2016.
“Around this period there were several events on our network that caused significant disruption to services including cable theft in the Valleys area, a signal failure at Cardiff Central, two train failures on the Marches line (one of which was a freight train) and a level crossing failure in Wem, Shropshire.
“These events subsequently affected the number of delay complaints that we received during this period.
“We recognise that per- formance is the biggest driver of customer satisfaction and it is therefore our highest area for priority in striving to improve customer experience.
“We use performance data on a day to day basis to identify problem areas and we work closely with colleagues and industry partners such as Network Rail and the British Transport Police to resolve any identified issues in order to minimise disruption.”