PROBE INTO RAIL WOES
TRAIN BOSSES GRILLED BY POLITICIANS ABOUT WHY SERVICES HAVE BEEN SO BAD SINCE THEY TOOK OVER FRANCHISE
TRANSPORT for Wales is to launch a full review into how problems across the network became so bad, so quickly, this autumn.
The chief executive of the Welsh public transport body said yesterday the operator has been struggling to recover after losing more than 20 trains from service because of wheel damage.
James Price told Assembly Members on the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee the network was almost back to having the 103 trains in service needed for a “normal” service – out of the total possible of 127 if there are no mechanical or other issues.
At the moment there are only 97 or 98 trains in service, leading to overcrowding and cancellations on rush-hour services.
The situation has led to complaints from passengers on Valley Lines services.
Mr Price, the chief executive of Transport for Wales – which took over the nation’s rail franchise from under-fire Arriva Trains
Wales in October – said he was confident they will get to the level of 103 trains, which Arriva Trains Wales operated at, within “one to two weeks”.
But he said he wants the service to operate at 110 trains “at which point people will see a significant change”.
There will be no new trains until next May. Asked by AM David Rowlands what mitigation measures were in place for the short term, ahead of any new trains, Mr Price said: “Even with 90% availability of the full fleet,
we’ve still got capacity problems which is why we’re doing these changes in the future and ordering new rolling stock.
“If we can achieve 90% availability, people will see a better service than Arriva ever did, even with the existing rolling stock which is what we’re trying to achieve.
“It’s never been achieved before, but that’s what we’re trying to achieve.
“Over and above that what we’re looking at, it’s still too early to commit, we’re looking to see if we can bring in additional rolling
stock. It certainly won’t be new, it’ll be quite old, for nine or 10 months next year to just provide a bit of a boost.”
They are talking to other operators to assist with overcrowding.
Mr Price continued: “To be clear, there is nothing available right now, but there might be from February or March next year.
“If we can bring something in, even if it’s for six or nine months, to make things better for passengers that’s what we’ll do.”
He said: “Passengers and customers will start to see a difference from spring next year and that’s in advance of the purpose-built fleet we’ve ordered as well.”
The problems this autumn have largely been caused by issues with the wheels of the trains, known as “wheel flats”.
It can be exacerbated by wet leaves on the line during the autumn, causing the wheels to slip on the tracks and wear unevently.
Resolving the problem involves taking the rolling stock out of service for repairs.
Mr Price said that before 2015 there had been a steady level of issues with wheels.
From 2015, the rate of problems doubled and he said that this year it has “gone through the roof”.
“It is due to the weather conditions but we think there are other issues at play as well,” he said.
“The best experts in Europe can’t assess what went wrong.”
Mr Price said the operator had brought in experts from operator KeolisAmey’s parent company SNCF, the French national rail operator, but they were baffled.
He speculated that a change of cleaning regime on the tracks across the UK might have been an issue in Wales, even though it had brought benefits across the rest of the UK where more trains are fitted with wheel slip protection.
Asked by committee chairman Russell George if Arriva Trains Wales could have done more, Mr Price responded: “I think that’s a really difficult question.
“I am almost certain if any operator had a contract running for three or four years longer, they would have done things like fit wheel slip protection and maintenance.
“Would there have been any commercial incentive to do that? No.”
They were also asked by Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth whether there was a “failure to monitor just how bad things were and what the effects of minimal maintenance were going to be?”.
Mr Price responded: “It’s a question we have been asking ourselves.
“I don’t think there was a failure in what anyone did.
“I would include what they were allowed to do in terms of current legislation.
“Arriva Trains Wales did what they were able to.
“Keolis Amey did what they were allowed to do and we did everything we could under the Department for Transport rulebook.”
Mr Price added: “There are two entirely separate issues. One is the fleet as a whole has not been maintained quite as well as it could have been.
“It was safe and it could hit targets. “We were mostly aware of that, but it’s a bit worse than we thought.
“Some of the working practices we have been more surprised about.”
Mr Price said Transport for Wales plans to invest in stations.
“In the last 15 years we think the value of investment in stations has been in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.
“We’re now going to spend £200m so that’s vastly different,” Mr Price added.
He said it would include taking on board feedback from disability and access groups.
Passengers and customers will start to see a difference from spring next year James Price, chief executive of TfW