Millions will be spent keeping old trains on tracks

MILLIONS of pounds will be spent on Wales’ ageing fleet of trains to help keep them running when there are wet leaves on the line.

The work will cut Sprinter trains’ wheel defects, which have caused particular issues this autumn.

A third of Transport of Wales’ (TfW) trains have been out of action recently, as they sit in the depot awaiting repairs.

These have largely been caused by leaves on the line, causing wheels to slide and resulting in them being worn down unevenly.

The lack of available rolling stock on the new franchise’s services has had the knock-on effect of cancellations and overcrowding during the rush-hour.

The new investment is part of a £40m package to catch up on work not done during Arriva Trains Wales’ 15-year franchise, which ended last month.

The Valley Lines Sprinter trains are 31 years old and due to be replaced from 2022 by new trains.

The cost of fitting them with “wheel slide protection” (WSP) will run into millions of pounds, according to TfW Rail Services.

Transport Secretary Ken Skates referred to the investment last week in the Senedd, where opposition AMs asked him to apologise for the hardships endured by passengers since TfW Rail Services took over from Arriva.

Mr Skates said: “Transport for Wales have discovered that, unfortunately, an ageing fleet of trains that they have inherited – an appalling fleet of trains – did not see investment made, which therefore led to a lack of modern technology being adopted on the rolling stock, and this includes, importantly, wheel slide protection.”

He added: “Why? Because market forces – the form of capitalism we operate – led to the operator deciding that it would rather have profits than put wheel slide protection on the trains.

“That will stop. By next autumn, every train that TfW operates will get wheel slide protection.”

Labour enthusiastically supported the form of capitalism cited by Mr Skates in 2003, when Tony Blair’s UK Government gave Arriva the franchise to run Wales and Borders services for 15 years, roughly twice as long as most franchises.

The contract included just £400,000 of investment, in station car parks, but the long franchise term gave Arriva time to reap the financial rewards of additional investments.

Arriva spent more than £33m on additional facilities – including station ticket gates, a wheel lathe at Cardiff Canton train depot and a new depot in Machynlleth – but chose not to modernise the Sprinter trains.

Currently 23 of the 36 Sprinters are out of service for repairs, mainly for damaged wheels.

This has forced TfW Rail Service to shorten many Valley Lines trains and provide buses from outer Cardiff suburbs.

Some north Wales lines also depend on the Sprinters. TfW has suspended the entire service on the Conwy Valley line through Betws-y-coed.

The Welsh Government recently earmarked an extra £48m of its budget for rail subsidy next year – taking the total above £170m – to “enable accelerated achievement of benefits to passengers” and bring the trains into line with regulations which make rail travel more accessible or easier for people with various disabilities.

Ensuring the Sprinters comply with the regulations will cost about £10m, on top of the investment in wheel slide protection.

Any trains without those features are not permitted to carry passengers after December 31, 2019. The deadline was set in 2010, but Arriva Trains Wales was free to disregard it because its franchise would end in 2018 and its contract did not include any train modifications.

The Sprinters will be the Valley Lines’ workhorses for another three autumns. They were built in 1987, before wheel slide protection (WSP) became a standard feature of new trains.

WSP works like anti-lock brakes and traction control on a car. It prevents the train’s steel wheels slipping in autumn, when the surface of the steel rails becomes coated with fallen leaves and other material – despite Network Rail frequently using its leaf-buster trains to clean the rails with water jets and apply a sand-based gel for better grip.

Slipping causes small flat areas to develop on wheels which could damage rails if left uncorrected. Damaged wheels are removed in Canton depot for the lathe to shave off metal until the wheels are flawless again.

A TfW spokesman said: “The fitting of WSP to TfW trains is part of our commitment to invest £40m in the current fleet of trains. This will also include maintenance, internal refurbishment and modifying trains to be more accessible for people with reduced mobility. This is in addition to the £800m investment in brand-new trains, which will begin entering service from 2022.”