Rail bosses are promising comfy seats on new trains
RAIL bosses have promised the next generation of Wales and Borders trains will be comfortable for long journeys.
They have also revealed that each of the 77 new long-distance trains will have three times more spaces for bicycles than the current trains.
The firmness of seats on some recent trains – including Great Western Railway’s InterCity Express Trains – has led to complaints, with some passengers likening them to “ironing boards”.
Rail passenger group Railfuture said a better standard was needed for the new trains which CAF will build in Newport for Wales and Borders services.
The trains will be delivered from 2022 to 2024 for routes such as Milford Haven to Manchester via Cardiff – currently six hours from end to end – and Holyhead and Aberystwyth to Birmingham.
Transport for Wales (TfW), the Welsh Government’s arm’s-length transport company, said it would seek passengers’ views before choosing the type of seat.
“We will work with our manufacturers to provide seating that is suited to passenger needs while also meeting relevant safety regulations,” said a TfW spokeswoman.
“Before making a final decision, we plan to trial mock-up seats and gather feedback from passengers at key locations around the network so passengers can enjoy journeys on safe, comfortable trains.”
Colin Lea, who led the winning KeolisAmey bid for the £5bn Wales and Borders contract, said: “This is a big issue of mine. We’re going to do our best to not hide behind the fire [safety] standards which we’ve seen with some franchises. A lot of those journeys are very long.”
The Rail Safety and Standards Board has launched a research project on train seat design. It said: “The goal is to put together a seat comfort specification for manufacturers with a set of minimum requirements, allowing comfort to be properly considered as an essential feature, alongside other needs such as crash-worthiness and fire safety.”
Railfuture spokesman Bruce Williamson, who lives in Bristol, said he had travelled in the new Great Western Railway trains. He said: “The seats struck me as pretty hard.”
Managers responsible for the new Wales and Borders trains should avoid making the same mistake, he added.
“It’s not rocket science that passengers want to be comfortable on longdistance journeys. A basic level of comfort ought to be, quite obviously, one of the key requirements,” said Mr Williamson.
Peter Absolon, secretary of the Pembrokeshire Rail Travellers’ Association, said the first couple of hours of long-distance journeys from Pembrokeshire were spent on local trains, which are operated by Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) until KeolisAmey takes over in October.
He said the Coradia trains now on the Milford Haven line were comfortable, but passengers would expect the future CAF-built trains to improve on that standard.
“You don’t expect to be going backwards,” he said.
One drawback of ATW’s long-distance trains is that they have space for only two bikes, despite the growing popularity of cycling for getting to and from stations or as a leisure pursuit. Any additional bikes are carried at the conductor’s discretion.
The TfW spokeswoman said: “There will be space for six bikes on each train, with extra space for folding bikes which can be taken on board as luggage. To encourage cyclists to travel by train, we will launch a bike booking system during 2021 and will invest in covered cycle storage at all stations.”
Mr Lea said: “We want to encourage active travel. Just south of Merthyr Tydfil there’s a fantastic mountain bike centre, and there’s one at Blae- nau Ffestiniog. It’s important that people can have the ability to take the bike on the train, and not have to take the car.”
The new trains should also provide better views through the windows than some of the old rolling stock now used on some of Wales’ most scenic railways.
The Conwy Valley line, from Llandudno to Blaenau Ffestiniog via Betws-y-coed and Snowdonia national park, now borrows a Sprinter train from Cardiff’s suburban railways – which means only a small proportion of seats provide a view of the spectacular scenery to the west of the railway.
“If you look at the stock that’s on the Conwy Valley line, it really isn’t the right stock for the market,” said Mr Lea.
“There’s going to be a change there.”