Rail Regulator, The Office of Rail and Road has launched an investigation into Network Rail Wales & Western region's poor train punctuality and reliability, which has seen ongoing decline whilst other networks across the country see stability in performance.
The Office of Rail and Road are aware that, in order to provide reliable and punctual trains, it requires a cross-industry focus and will seek to investigate the roundtable of parties who have a direct impact on delivering train performance for the region in question.
With the focus of the investigation on Network Rail, ORR's investigation will also look into train operators, freight operators and other rail-related bodies in order to discover the steps required to bring improved performance for passengers and freight for the Wales and Western region.
The investigation aims to find whether Network Rail is compliant with license obligations for the Wales & Western region and also to assess whether it is doing everything within reasonable power to provide train service performance.
The regulator will also undertake a review of the effectiveness of the region's Performance Improvement Plan, which will discover if assets are managed appropriately and the potential effects changes to the rail network could bring to performance.
Following the investigation's completion, the Office of Rail and Road will determine whether Network Rail could do more and whether any necessary measures should be introduced, which could include enforcement action.
Feras Alshaker, Director, Performance and Planning, said:
“While Network Rail has begun making good progress in stabilising performance elsewhere on the network, performance in the Wales & Western region has continued to deteriorate, meaning poor reliability and punctuality for passengers and freight.”
“Our investigation will take a detailed look at the root causes of the region's performance issues and will consider wider contributing factors. As part of our work, we will convene a roundtable with key players in the region to support Network Rail in taking pragmatic and effective action to improve performance for all the region's rail users.”
TfW’s dog in manger scheduling has a lot to answer for. Their 1747 Cardiff to Carmarthen is a classic of the genre. It forms from an empty stock move, which is often not held to let GWR’s much higher-capacity 1742 to Carmarthen to go first. All it takes is a terminating train waiting to cross into Cardiff Brickyard Sidings gumming up the opposite face of platforms 3 and 4 and the result is that GWR get delayed. Then the passengers get told they can’t claim Delay Repay because they should have wedged themselves into TfW’s obstacle train.
As one of the weird people who worked on the railways when it was British Rail, A Guard then a Driver,the only way forward is to Nationalise the Railway once again. Remember the days when you get off your grubby train and wait 15 mins for a connecting service. The Railway should be run by Railway People, not Bus Companies.
Wales
Hopefully the ORR will interogate the Transport for Wales team.
Perhaps they should talk to Andy Street Mayor from the midlands area who declared that the west midlands train service provided woeful performance for it’s customers back in 2017.
The west midlands MD then stepped down. However now he is in a senior role in TFW , dear me what a shambles….
The current leader of the Western and Wales area lives in Scotland commuting to work by plane. Not train. That shows leadership for you. As you say leadership not underpinned in rail. This leader is a former ship yard builder the synergies are clear.
The problem with the Wales and Western area is the lack of experience in the managing organisations of both Transport for Wales and Network Rail. Network Rail has lost some very experienced leaders replaced by people from transport industries but not underpinned with rail. Western has lost Mark Langman and Wales has been without an experienced leader for at least 10 years.
Transport for Wales is a complete pantomime and the organisation is made up of some very inexperienced senior staff who are cutting their teeth at the expense of a reliable service. The arriva team who proceeded TFW were far more experienced at running a train service. So the ORR should look at these organisations perhaps set them an examination in rail terminology or process and sort the wheat out of the chaff
I would suggest that TfW start by fixing their trains and maybe putting on more carriages, particularly between Birmingham and Aberystwyth. Also, run your routes as advertised and not, suddenly, order passengers to swap trains.
Network Rail do need to get the signalling and track fixed too, but TfW needs fixing.
Agree with rolling stock problems. South Wales to Manchester service never more than 2 standard coaches. Even the Mark 4 sets have only two standard and this is just not enough. Unreliability of infrastructure leads to many terminations short of destination and also incorrect stock. Last week the last all stations Crewe to Shrewsbury was a mark 4 set and unable to call at short platforms so service cancelled. Typical
Is it my eyes but don’t the corridor ends on the 197 seem to stick out more than say those on a 158 or 450? Not sure that is a good thing for visibility. The retractable ones on the 380s seemed a good idea but presumably are more complicated/expensive to maintain.
I so agree with the comment above. Sardines in a can is a perfect metaphor. Even the guards are embarrassed by the appalling situation. As for a timetable, there is not one. Late running and cancellations are par for the course.
Having just travelled on the TFW line from Chester to Bangor.
What a appalling service. Just 2 coaches squeezed like sardines in a can it was awful seeing all holidaymakers with cases trying to get on
This is not new in the past getting of the London train with all their baggage, terrible.
After getting of the TFW train from Manchester ..
.thebeing regailed by all the Welsh culture then having to alight at Chester train didn’t go to Wales.