Rail service improving, but still not on track
TRANSPORT for Wales still isn’t back to offering the same service as its doomed predecessor Arriva Trains Wales – despite having got the number of trains back in action that its boss said were needed.
The new company’s boss told AMs two weeks ago that it needed to get 103 trains in service to operate at the level Arriva Trains Wales did.
While Transport for Wales say that number has been reached they’re not all the right type of trains so they “are not able to guarantee that we can service all routes”.
On November 28, James Price said he thought a normal service would be back within a “week to 10 days”.
At that point the number of trains out in service was 98 out of a full fleet of 127. Mr Price said Arriva Trains Wales was operating at 103 but he wanted to get to 110 “at which point people will see a significant change”.
A week later cabinet secretary Ken Skates said: “I think that’s still our target. But, hopefully, by the beginning of next week, we’ll be back on service, as long as we don’t get another major storm that causes us a whole load more wheel flats.”
However there’s now a disclaimer from the company. While it has 104 trains back in action, it cannot yet offer a full service.
The company says it is doing “everything possible” to get the maximum number of services operating and engineers are working around the clock.
“We have already been able to resume a full service on the Wrexham to Bidston line last week and Milford Haven on Monday and we will continue to restore services as trains become available to us,” said a spokesman.
“We are very pleased to have seen a significant improvement in fleet availability thanks to the hard work of many people in Transport for Wales.
“It is encouraging to have achieved the figure of 104 trains available for the first time in more than a month. We have been able to reinstate a number of services accordingly as a result.
“Operationally our teams will be ensuring the right trains are in the right place to deliver a full service for our customers with the aim of reopening all lines within a week.
“It is important to note that the weather and general fleet reliability can still significantly frustrate our ability to achieve this – but that is what we are working towards.”