‘Commuter train punctuality dips due to church’s collapse’

TRAIN punctuality on local commuter services in Wales has dipped dramatically because of the collapse of a church in Cardiff.

Arriva Trains Wales was one of the best-performing train operators in the UK for most of the early part of this year.

But it blamed a slump in punctuality in the four weeks from June 26 to July 22 on the collapse of a derelict church known as the Citadel in Splott, in which a man died.

During the four-week period, just under one in four (38.5%) of Arriva Trains Wales services were more than a minute late and one in ten (90.1%) were more than five minutes late.

It is significantly down on the equivalent figures for April 30 to May 27, when Arriva Trains Wales was “the most punctual in Britain”.

Then, only 14.6% of services that reached final stations were more than 59 seconds late.

Great Western Railway, which runs mainline services from south Wales to London, recorded similar statistics with slightly over one in seven (13.5%) services arriving more than five minutes late. Although train firms operate on very different networks, it suggests Great Western was the eighth-worst for punctuality out of the UK’s 22 operators and Arriva Trains Wales ninth.

Lynne Milligan, customer services director for Arriva Trains Wales, said: “We have been delighted to be among the top two train operators in the UK for right-time punctuality for most of 2017. This is due to the hard work of our staff and our close partnership working with Network Rail.”