WALES
The Welsh Assembly has been told the Province’s train problems have been “deliberately stored up” by the UK Government.
Director of Transport Projects, Simon Jones (pictured) made the claim after Transport for Wales (TfW) officials said they did not know what had suddenly caused so much damage to trains, disrupting journeys towards the end of last year.
Almost 20 of 127 trains were out on one weekend.
After apologising to passengers, TfW warned them to expect more problems.
Giving evidence to an Assembly Committee, Mr Jones said he had raised problems with the rolling stock before TfW took over the new railway franchise for Wales.
“The UK Government were not interested with our problems, it wanted that to be dealt with as part of the new franchise,” Mr Jones said.
“So those problems have been stored up by design by the previous owners of that contract, and it’s for us to unpick.”
Secretary for the Economy, Ken Skates said the previous contract, negotiated by the UK’s former Labour Government with Arriva Trains Wales, was “not fit for purpose”.
He said while Arriva Trains Wales met the conditions of the contract, those conditions were so low that the trains needed only to be maintained to the very minimum.
A spokesperson for the UK Department for Transport said the UK Government was committed to delivering better journeys for train passengers in Wales and had agreed to provide £125 million (A$221 million) towards the costs of line electrification in South Wales.
Cardiff, 3 January 2019
