Cancellations 'not our fault' says new rail company

Rail cancellations across Mid Wales are the fault of former franchise holders Arriva Trains the new operators have claimed.

Passengers were hit with cancellations of trains through Newtown every other hour all last week on the new Transport Wales Service running from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury.

But the train company repeated an apology, placing the blame clearly on Arriva Trains, the company it inherited its rolling stock from.

Spokesman James Nicholas said: “We have people working around the clock to repair the trains that are coming in, but when they go back out others are coming back in for repairs.”

Disgruntled passengers say many Transport for Wales services affected now run once every two hours. But the train company today repeated an apology – and placed the blame on Arriva Trains, the company it inherited its rolling stock from.

Spokesman James Nicholas said: “We have people working around the clock to repair the trains that are coming in, but when they go back out others are coming back in for repairs.”

Last week Transport for Wales, which took over the franchise this year, took out advertising space apologising to customers. It said it had inherited problems with rolling stock, with around one in five trains on the fleet being off the track for repairs.

Mr Nicholas said there wasn’t a designated change in timetables that has led to two hourly services between Newtown and Shrewsbury being badly affected. Others services between Aberystwyth and Birmingham, taking in towns including Newtown, Welshpool, Shrewsbury and Telford, have also been hit.

He said “We have issued apologised this week to passengers, and thanked them for their patience It is not just the Cambrian Line from Aberystwyth – there are other areas that are suffering as well.” 

Mr Nicholas said there isn’t a time frame on when the service will be running at full capacity again, but engineers were working as quick as possible to minimise the disruption.

He added: “We can’t give a time on when the service will be be fully back up and running because when a few go out a few come back in. People are working hard to get trains back on the track as soon as possible.”