Director agrees Arriva train travel is uncomfortable

The head of Arriva Trains Wales has admitted that travelling on the trains can be “uncomfortable,” and has cited the lack of trains as the main problem.

When he appeared before a committee of MPs this week, the managing director of Arriva Trains Wales, Tim Bell, answered questions about cancellations, late-running service and overcrowding.

“If we had more trains to use, we would use them,” Bell insisted. “We are aware of the overcrowding problems we have.” When he was asked if the company, which operates train services across Wales, had enough trains at this time, Bell responded: “No, we don’t have.”

He went on to say: “I think it’s an uncomfortable way to travel and we would hope to do something about that.”

There was a similar admission by First Great Western that its service connecting London with South Wales was not performing at the same levels as its other UK services.

Bell did say, however, that Valleys Line services were on time 95.5 per cent of the time, which is the best performance on record for a small UK operator. “We have shown that over the last three to four years we have been very successful in improving our performance in general,” he said.

“I think there is still much more for us to do….there are some areas where we do need to spend more time in improving our performance.”

Thanks to www.walesonline.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk