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It's a familiar scene for many commuters. | :00:09. | :00:11. | |
If there's less than three carriages, you're not getting on. | :00:12. | :00:16. | |
We're tamping because we have to wait till 6.43 here. | :00:17. | :00:23. | |
We go behind the scenes as Arriva work every night | :00:24. | :00:25. | |
Our oldest train is 4.1 million miles ? | :00:26. | :00:30. | |
And we see them deal with tens of thousands | :00:31. | :00:41. | |
Cardiff station is not built for managing events of this size, | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
Wales has #traintrouble - so how did we get here? | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
And is there light at the end of the tunnel? | :00:50. | :01:03. | |
All across Wales, people are getting ready for the journey to work. | :01:04. | :01:12. | |
In Ebbw Vale, Matt and Tara Marshman are grabbing a quick breakfast | :01:13. | :01:19. | |
before Matt heads off for an hour-long train trip | :01:20. | :01:21. | |
How have the trains been? Trying to get an earlier one in or | :01:22. | :01:30. | |
an earlier one home. It's a scene repeated | :01:31. | :01:31. | |
in households across South Wales. Rhiannon MacElvenny | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
and her partner Gareth live in Ton Pentre in the Rhondda - | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
and it's Rhiannon who braves the cold first | :01:41. | :01:42. | |
to catch her Cardiff train. Every morning rush hour, | :01:43. | :01:46. | |
14,000 commuters pour Matt Marshman works for a web design | :01:47. | :01:48. | |
firm and has found the train from his local station to Cardiff | :01:49. | :01:54. | |
is much better than trying to drive. But while he's a fan, | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
in recent months he says some of his journeys to and from work | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
have seen scenes like this. So each day he and thousands | :02:03. | :02:12. | |
of other commuters head to their station with | :02:13. | :02:15. | |
a sense of trepidation. Everybody has got the same sort of | :02:16. | :02:28. | |
thing on their mind, and I going to get a seat? If I was on the longer | :02:29. | :02:34. | |
line I would feel a little bit more nervous. Hopefully they have got the | :02:35. | :02:37. | |
Peter working as well! -- heaters. In a different valley, | :02:38. | :02:40. | |
on a different line at Ton Pentre - Rhiannon has found the right train | :02:41. | :02:45. | |
to get her to work. The trains you get here at 7:53am, | :02:46. | :02:55. | |
arriving at 8:45am, so as long as it is on time, 15 minutes is plenty of | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
time for me to walk over and get to work and start my shift. | :03:01. | :03:01. | |
But some days, things don't go to plan. | :03:02. | :03:03. | |
And Rhiannon has arrived late at the call centre where she works. | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
It is really stressful, straightaway you are worrying about explaining to | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
work that you're late again, and it is not by two or three minutes, it | :03:15. | :03:20. | |
is up to half an hour, 45 minutes that I have been late. You are at | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
the mercy of the train, there is nowhere you can go. | :03:24. | :03:25. | |
Today Rhiannon's train is on time and while there are plenty | :03:26. | :03:28. | |
of seats at her stop, they'll soon be filled. | :03:29. | :03:31. | |
And she says over the last few months she s experienced | :03:32. | :03:33. | |
overcrowding, delays and even cancelled trains. | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
Both Rhiannon and Matt have taken to social media | :03:39. | :03:40. | |
Hundreds of other commuters have vented their frustrations | :03:41. | :03:46. | |
Those are the stories ? but is it as bad as all that? | :03:47. | :04:03. | |
I'm joining the morning rush hour at Llandaff to get a taste. | :04:04. | :04:06. | |
It's one of the last stations on a main valley line, | :04:07. | :04:09. | |
before you reach the city centre in Cardiff. | :04:10. | :04:11. | |
And where there have been complaints from passengers that | :04:12. | :04:13. | |
I have just tried to get on the 7:50am from Llandaff into Cardiff | :04:14. | :04:54. | |
city centre, it was absolutely rammed. Very few people managed to | :04:55. | :04:58. | |
get on, and all the conductor could say was, there will be another one | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
along in ten minutes, and I will try to get on it. | :05:03. | :05:03. | |
It all 5am, from Llandaff into the city centre of Cardiff. | :05:04. | :05:17. | |
It was pretty busy, standing room only, what I would have expected. At | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
the train I got on had four carriages, the one before only had | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
two carriages. What I have gone through is the experience for | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
thousands of commuters every day, who rely on the trains to get them | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
to work on time. So how did we get into this mess? | :05:35. | :05:35. | |
Under the spotlight are Arriva Trains Wales. | :05:36. | :05:38. | |
Arriva are part of the largest transport companies in Europe - | :05:39. | :05:41. | |
Other train operators come into Wales, but since 2003 | :05:42. | :05:47. | |
it's Arriva who run local services and manage the stations. | :05:48. | :05:53. | |
They're punctual and have improved timetables. | :05:54. | :05:56. | |
Today's passenger satisfaction survey on issues from tickets | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
to stations showed their overall figures remained the same. | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
However, satisfaction with their trains has dropped. | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
Arriva's overcrowding has prompted inquiries by politicians. | :06:08. | :06:15. | |
Deeply frustrating for us, but even worse for our customers. Because we | :06:16. | :06:23. | |
cannot actually address that demands that we have got. | :06:24. | :06:24. | |
The number of train journeys in Wales has risen from 18 million | :06:25. | :06:27. | |
So, what do passengers think is the answer? | :06:28. | :06:37. | |
More carriages on. Putting bigger trains on the tracks. | :06:38. | :06:46. | |
More carriages, frequent trains, more communication. | :06:47. | :06:49. | |
Nothing it seems is that straightforward when | :06:50. | :06:50. | |
I've come to Manchester to meet rail industry expert Tony Miles. | :06:51. | :07:01. | |
He says Arriva's much discussed zero growth contract did give them | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
You were locked into the number of trains you have got at the beginning | :07:05. | :07:15. | |
for the whole length of what, in Wales, is quite a long contract. And | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
that is the problem. How do you predict what will happen | :07:20. | :07:25. | |
in 15 years' time and how it right? We didn't predict the number of | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
people that would use public transport. It was lovely to have | :07:30. | :07:32. | |
everything nice and secure and signed off, but it gave no | :07:33. | :07:33. | |
flexibility. That means that in Wales | :07:34. | :07:34. | |
on the morning commute, more passengers are being | :07:35. | :07:36. | |
crammed into the same number Back with Matt on his journey ? | :07:37. | :07:38. | |
he knows the comfort of his trip depends on | :07:39. | :07:45. | |
how many carriages turn up. Three carriages this morning, which | :07:46. | :07:56. | |
is good, a lot of happy and smiley faces getting on the train this | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
morning. If there is less than three carriages, it is a gamble whether | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
you going to get on not. If you are a little further away from the doors | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
than someone else and it is only two carriages, you are not getting on. | :08:10. | :08:11. | |
Of course, overcrowding on the railways is not | :08:12. | :08:13. | |
A busy station like this in Manchester is a case in point. | :08:14. | :08:19. | |
According to the latest department for transport figures for 2015, | :08:20. | :08:21. | |
overcrowding rates for Manchester are higher than in Cardiff. | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
But the difference is they are decreasing here, | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
but in Cardiff are on the rise at a faster rate than anywhere else | :08:32. | :08:34. | |
And that was before Arriva Trains Wales admitted | :08:35. | :08:42. | |
that overcrowding on its services had reached its highest level | :08:43. | :08:44. | |
The travelling public have gone home. | :08:45. | :08:50. | |
But for Simon Hughes and his team of engineers | :08:51. | :08:52. | |
at the Cardiff train depot, their timebable has only just begun. | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
-- timetable. This depot in Cardiff get 60-70 | :08:59. | :09:10. | |
trains every night, and we have people who will clean, fuel, repair | :09:11. | :09:13. | |
and maintain the trains and put them back out to service the next day. | :09:14. | :09:15. | |
With an average age of 27 years, Wales' fleet of trains are some | :09:16. | :09:18. | |
Our oldest train is some 4.5 million miles. Sometimes they turn up with | :09:19. | :09:27. | |
some unknown defect that we have to repair. That takes people away from | :09:28. | :09:32. | |
doing their day job and onto repairs, and it is more maintenance | :09:33. | :09:35. | |
burden again. We understand there are customers standing on our | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
trains, there are failures in the fleet, and we are working really | :09:41. | :09:45. | |
hard to train to mitigate that. -- to try and mitigate that. | :09:46. | :09:47. | |
Even with the best efforts, old trains will break down - | :09:48. | :09:49. | |
This carriage is in darkness, and I don't think they know, because it is | :09:50. | :10:02. | |
in complete darkness. And if carriages | :10:03. | :10:04. | |
are out of service - having their wheels fixed | :10:05. | :10:05. | |
after damage caused by sliding on leaves, | :10:06. | :10:07. | |
there are few spare trains. And passengers like Matt have | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
to deal with the consequences. Loads and loads of people with only | :10:12. | :10:24. | |
two carriages available, we had, people left on the platform. We had | :10:25. | :10:31. | |
people standing, not a lot of room for anybody at all. It is | :10:32. | :10:38. | |
unbelievable the amount of people who can voice their opinions, and | :10:39. | :10:41. | |
you can actually hear the tweets and things going on in the background. | :10:42. | :10:43. | |
Arriva's contract continues until 2018, and it's often used | :10:44. | :10:46. | |
to explain why more trains can't be added until then. | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
But is it really as black and white as that? | :10:51. | :10:57. | |
This station here in Ebbw Vale did not even exist in 2003 when | :10:58. | :11:05. | |
company-mac took cover, but in 2008, and new line was introduced, and | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
thanks to extra money from the Welsh Government, three additional trains | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
were least, taking passengers from here down to Cardiff, so it seems | :11:17. | :11:20. | |
that where there is a will, and more money, extra trains, and services | :11:21. | :11:27. | |
can be run, above and beyond any franchise agreement. | :11:28. | :11:28. | |
Two years ago, this new train service and carriages | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
were introduced to run from Holyhead to Manchester | :11:32. | :11:34. | |
thanks to extra central government money. | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
But in North Wales there are people as unhappy with their rail service | :11:40. | :11:42. | |
One is business leader Askar Shebani in Deeside. | :11:43. | :11:47. | |
He thinks it's holding back the local economy. | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
It is not really a railway network that our employees can use | :11:54. | :12:01. | |
businesses can use. They have used it, they were either late to work or | :12:02. | :12:07. | |
they could not access work, and so they can lose their jobs if they | :12:08. | :12:11. | |
continue to use that, so they have given up. Whole rail infrastructure | :12:12. | :12:16. | |
is very poor. Nothing has really improved here at all. | :12:17. | :12:19. | |
It was once thought that rail travel would be going out of fashion. | :12:20. | :12:22. | |
Now there's a scramble to try and deal with the growing demand. | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
Commuter routes from the Valleys are filling up with customers. | :12:27. | :12:29. | |
Surely all the additional fares from passengers sitting | :12:30. | :12:31. | |
or standing could help fund extra trains. | :12:32. | :12:41. | |
The rail industry is full of surprises. For example, it may | :12:42. | :12:47. | |
surprise you to learn that Arriva Trains's services are some of the | :12:48. | :12:53. | |
most heavily subsidised in the UK. They receive anything between 110 | :12:54. | :12:58. | |
and ?160 million per year, because while some routes make money through | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
fares, many of us don't, because they are carrying what the company | :13:04. | :13:04. | |
likes to cold fresh air. Money could be saved | :13:05. | :13:05. | |
if Arriva could get more Trains that don't need constant | :13:06. | :13:07. | |
repair, like these being assembled at one of the | :13:08. | :13:11. | |
largest train manufacturers - There have been enquires from Wales, | :13:12. | :13:13. | |
but no trains will be ordered from anywhere until | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
it's clear which company wins And whether our trains will be | :13:19. | :13:21. | |
diesel, electric or something else. Passengers in Wales need | :13:22. | :13:27. | |
a solution before then, so for now it's a case of Arriva | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
buying some existing Here is another surprise about the | :13:32. | :13:43. | |
rail industry. Train operating companies like Arriva Trains do not | :13:44. | :13:49. | |
actually own their own trains, they lease them from just three private | :13:50. | :13:56. | |
rolling stock companies that control virtually the entire supply for the | :13:57. | :14:02. | |
country. So why do Arriva Trains not simply release more trains? Well, | :14:03. | :14:09. | |
here it seems there is a problem. There are no trains to lease, no | :14:10. | :14:13. | |
diesel locomotives that fit our roots and our fleet and maintenance, | :14:14. | :14:16. | |
that we can go out there in get. They do not exist. | :14:17. | :14:17. | |
It's hard for commuters to believe there are no spare trains. | :14:18. | :14:23. | |
For Rhiannon and her partner, it means the commute home especially | :14:24. | :14:26. | |
It is two carriages again. And it is full. | :14:27. | :14:41. | |
We now have to wait until 6:43pm here, the next train, if that is on | :14:42. | :14:47. | |
time, so we now have been nearly 45 minutes late. | :14:48. | :14:50. | |
It's true that the three big rolling stock companies don't | :14:51. | :14:52. | |
Tony Miles says there are smaller companies with rolling stock that | :14:53. | :14:58. | |
They've been able to make some of those available to railway | :14:59. | :15:05. | |
They used to use them from North Wales to the north of England. | :15:06. | :15:11. | |
They're very expensive to use but they're there and they'd happily | :15:12. | :15:14. | |
hire them if somebody came up with a contract. | :15:15. | :15:16. | |
And were on charter this Christmas in Newport. | :15:17. | :15:24. | |
They used to run up and down the Rhymney Valley | :15:25. | :15:26. | |
So could they run up and down the same routes again? | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
The Customer Services Director for Arriva is Lynne Milligan. | :15:32. | :15:35. | |
We have specific requirements for trains here. | :15:36. | :15:43. | |
Locomotive and coaches are useful on Rhymney Valley here but they're | :15:44. | :15:46. | |
not best kind of train for this network at all. | :15:47. | :15:48. | |
But as a short-term measure, in recent months, couldn't you just | :15:49. | :15:51. | |
We've already put into North Wales a locomotive and coaches | :15:52. | :16:00. | |
Arriva Train Wales is now supervised by the Welsh Government. | :16:01. | :16:07. | |
I'm meeting the minister in charge, who is critical of the 2003 | :16:08. | :16:10. | |
contract that predicted zero passenger growth. | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
So can they help Arriva conjure up the much-needed stock? | :16:15. | :16:21. | |
But the problem would be even worse if the Welsh Government did exactly | :16:22. | :16:27. | |
what you said we should have done five years ago and looked | :16:28. | :16:30. | |
at where additional capacity was needed and as consequence spent | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
an additional ?25 million a year on the franchise which otherwise | :16:35. | :16:37. | |
We're not responsible, we're not obligated to spend that money. | :16:38. | :16:44. | |
We're doing that because the problem been so pressing. | :16:45. | :16:52. | |
There are days where the Wales rail service is really | :16:53. | :16:55. | |
Good afternoon and welcome to the Arriva Trains briefing... | :16:56. | :17:02. | |
Bethan Jelfs has the difficult task tonight | :17:03. | :17:05. | |
Ticket sales are just over 71,000 so this is going to be our busiest | :17:06. | :17:12. | |
Major events have caused problems in the past. | :17:13. | :17:18. | |
But lessons have been learned and Arriva say | :17:19. | :17:20. | |
These events take a year of planning, so as soon | :17:21. | :17:30. | |
as we have dates available, we start planning. | :17:31. | :17:31. | |
Every single train that we have is in operation. | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
I know people think we've done nothing but, yes, we do hire in. | :17:37. | :17:40. | |
But not all passengers have had a good journey to town. | :17:41. | :17:49. | |
And there must have been 1,000 people. | :17:50. | :17:56. | |
We have had word the game is about to finish so we need to put things | :17:57. | :18:15. | |
into operation. to manage the wave of passengers | :18:16. | :18:17. | |
all desperate to get home. 100 Newport over to | :18:18. | :18:23. | |
platform one, please. Ultimately it's 40,000 people | :18:24. | :18:27. | |
catching train for an event. We're seeing these figures more | :18:28. | :18:30. | |
and more regularly so we have to have some crowd-management | :18:31. | :18:33. | |
measures in place. How long have you had to queue? Not | :18:34. | :18:40. | |
too long, to be fair. 20 minutes. Cardiff Station wasn't built | :18:41. | :18:48. | |
to manage events of this size so we use every inch of the station | :18:49. | :18:51. | |
to move people around. We've heavily invested in having | :18:52. | :18:53. | |
extra people at events. The weather is not very good so we | :18:54. | :19:13. | |
have foil blankets and sweets. The interaction with customers is really | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
key. You've got to take it as it comes. There's lots of people. There | :19:19. | :19:26. | |
is no flow! It's static! Compared to last year this is far better, people | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
coming out of town, but something needs to be done, I think. We won! | :19:32. | :19:34. | |
Who cares? They're probably not enjoying it | :19:35. | :19:41. | |
greatly but we try and get the message to them that it's | :19:42. | :19:43. | |
for their own safety. An army of volunteers and trains | :19:44. | :19:46. | |
begged and borrowed ensure things But could they find carriages | :19:47. | :19:48. | |
on a more regular basis? I've come to these to these | :19:49. | :19:59. | |
sidings across the border, where we're told there | :20:00. | :20:01. | |
are some hidden treasures. I feel like a bit of | :20:02. | :20:04. | |
a train-spotter, because I'm at Long Marston in the Cotswolds, | :20:05. | :20:07. | |
where rolling stock I'm actually trying to spot | :20:08. | :20:10. | |
some Mark 3 carriages. But the reason I'm here | :20:11. | :20:18. | |
is that we understand that there are around 18 carriages | :20:19. | :20:21. | |
belonging to Arriva Trains Wales that are now owned by their German | :20:22. | :20:29. | |
parent company, Deutsche Bahn. So the question is why | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
are they sitting here getting rusty when they could be helping | :20:35. | :20:40. | |
passengers deal with overcrowding? I couldn't pick them | :20:41. | :20:42. | |
out from my location. But we know in the past, | :20:43. | :20:44. | |
Arriva have refurbished some of these carriages | :20:45. | :20:46. | |
for routes in Wales. If you travel in the morning | :20:47. | :20:49. | |
from Chester into Manchester, or Manchester out of Llandudno | :20:50. | :20:56. | |
in the afternoon, you may travel And they also own the train that | :20:57. | :20:58. | |
does the one special So they do own some trains | :20:59. | :21:05. | |
and they've got a few So if Arriva own them and have used | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
them before, why not now? We have the best of those trains | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
that have been refurbished and they're running around | :21:16. | :21:18. | |
at the moment on our network. I'm told there are carriages | :21:19. | :21:21. | |
there that could be used The trains that are left | :21:22. | :21:23. | |
in that field are not They're not in a good enough place | :21:24. | :21:30. | |
to be a quick enough solution, so we're looking at other solutions | :21:31. | :21:39. | |
that are currently being explored. But Tony Miles believes there could | :21:40. | :21:42. | |
be life left in those carriages. They could, if they had the money, | :21:43. | :21:46. | |
get them out of the sidings So when Arriva say there's no | :21:47. | :21:49. | |
rolling stock out there, It's not strictly true to say | :21:50. | :21:55. | |
there's no rolling stock out there. It's probably true to say | :21:56. | :22:01. | |
unless somebody finds money to pay for it, | :22:02. | :22:03. | |
it can't use the rolling What Arriva wants is more | :22:04. | :22:06. | |
of the small commuter So why didn't Arriva secure them | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
when they were available? We've been trying to secure rolling | :22:12. | :22:22. | |
stock and it hasn't come to us. So we're currently in | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
discussions with the Welsh The options are complex but they may | :22:28. | :22:29. | |
well provide a short-term solution. Back on the daily commute, | :22:30. | :22:36. | |
Rhiannon's homeward Her train was cancelled | :22:37. | :22:38. | |
and she's stuck at Treforest. I'm now having to wait | :22:39. | :22:45. | |
for my other half to pick me up Luckily he's got a day off, | :22:46. | :22:49. | |
otherwise I'd be stuck There's not an actual statement | :22:50. | :22:55. | |
but probably signalling issues. Over half the problems experienced | :22:56. | :23:07. | |
by passengers are not because of the trains, | :23:08. | :23:10. | |
but because of the track. That's Network Rail's | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
responsibility, as well as cleaning Over Christmas, they caused major | :23:15. | :23:16. | |
disruption at Cardiff Central. But in his new signalling control | :23:17. | :23:25. | |
room, Route Manager Director Andy Thomas believes the changes | :23:26. | :23:29. | |
will deliver benefits. To put this into context, the | :23:30. | :23:42. | |
signalling system in Cardiff, 300 million, this was the biggest system | :23:43. | :23:47. | |
commissioned ever for the UK to date. A signalling system is | :23:48. | :23:51. | |
designed to increase the number of trains that go through Cardiff, from | :23:52. | :23:57. | |
12 trains per hour to 16, and that resilience is important because it | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
allows us, when things do go wrong, to recover really, really quickly, | :24:02. | :24:04. | |
so we minimise the impact on passengers. | :24:05. | :24:06. | |
But as Cardiff moves into the 21st century, | :24:07. | :24:08. | |
its main station is decades out of date. | :24:09. | :24:10. | |
It's just one example of what some say is an under-investment | :24:11. | :24:13. | |
Unfortunately, the amount being spent on the network | :24:14. | :24:24. | |
in Wales has only been 1% of the overall provision. | :24:25. | :24:29. | |
That's despite having 6% of the railway lines. | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
It's been met with resistance from the UK Government consistently | :24:35. | :24:42. | |
but we've been equally consistent in our demand for a fair | :24:43. | :24:45. | |
share of network funding and for devolution of responsibility | :24:46. | :24:50. | |
so we can invest where it's necessary. | :24:51. | :24:56. | |
The UK Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, declined | :24:57. | :24:58. | |
His department highlighted their recent investments | :24:59. | :25:02. | |
But they say the provision and funding of the rail franchise | :25:03. | :25:09. | |
in Wales is the responsibility of the Welsh Government. | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
Back with Matt, and he's just arrived in Cardiff as scheduled, | :25:15. | :25:17. | |
Most trains run as planned but he says there's enough | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
uncertainty to cause him some anxiety. | :25:24. | :25:27. | |
All I want is a consistent service, with consistent carriages, | :25:28. | :25:31. | |
that does the job, that gets you in and out of Cardiff | :25:32. | :25:34. | |
Luckily I work for a company that's very understanding that I travel | :25:35. | :25:41. | |
by train so it can take a bit longer. | :25:42. | :25:44. | |
But certainly in the past you're supposed to be sat down | :25:45. | :25:47. | |
in your desk at a specific time, and if your train is a bit | :25:48. | :25:51. | |
delayed, they encourage you to catch an earlier train. | :25:52. | :25:58. | |
But on our line, with just one train an hour, it's not really possible. | :25:59. | :26:05. | |
Arriva Trains Wales have been regarded as one of the UK's | :26:06. | :26:07. | |
They've hit their performance targets and last year they made | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
That's double the margin that similar regional franchises | :26:13. | :26:19. | |
So could they have used more of their profits to help | :26:20. | :26:26. | |
We operate about 20% more than is contractual to us, | :26:27. | :26:33. | |
so we've really made a commitment to this business. | :26:34. | :26:37. | |
We've invested well over ?30 million in a whole series | :26:38. | :26:39. | |
And this year alone, we're going to invest | :26:40. | :26:44. | |
a further ?2.5 million, despite fact that in 18 months' time | :26:45. | :26:47. | |
Arriva Trains Wales is one of the most heavily subsidised | :26:48. | :26:54. | |
What does the Welsh Government think about their investment levels? | :26:55. | :27:03. | |
It's galling that we spend ?25 million a year on additional | :27:04. | :27:06. | |
services above and beyond the franchise agreement. | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
But isn't the point whether Arriva Trains Wales has | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
a responsibility to invest more of its profits in the services it | :27:16. | :27:18. | |
runs because it receives such a generous subsidy | :27:19. | :27:20. | |
It's fair to say Arriva Trains Wales should invest in a quality service | :27:21. | :27:26. | |
wherever and whenever a passenger expects. | :27:27. | :27:30. | |
More than it has done in recent years? | :27:31. | :27:34. | |
I think it stands to reason they should be investing more | :27:35. | :27:36. | |
in the service and I constantly raise with Arriva the need | :27:37. | :27:40. | |
He said it is galling to have to spend given this heavy subsidy that | :27:41. | :28:16. | |
goes to Arriva. Government subsidy made up 55% of the subsidy and it | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
now makes up 40% of that income because that subsidy declined every | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
year. And the nature of the franchise protect the government | :28:26. | :28:26. | |
from variations in cost. Today's Passenger Satisfaction | :28:27. | :28:33. | |
figures show Arriva's But happiness with their | :28:34. | :28:34. | |
trains has declined. Every day, Arriva say | :28:35. | :28:37. | |
they're doing their best. I'd love to be able to say, | :28:38. | :28:39. | |
"Here's more trains, give everybody a seat | :28:40. | :28:41. | |
on those services." But we just don't have it, | :28:42. | :28:43. | |
so for us, the challenge is how do we make the best | :28:44. | :28:46. | |
of the service we've got? In 18 months' time, | :28:47. | :28:54. | |
there will be a new franchise. Whoever's successful, | :28:55. | :28:56. | |
getting the contract right But how to solve the | :28:57. | :29:02. | |
current overcrowding? Well, that seems to have descended | :29:03. | :29:08. | |
into a blame game with the commuters So for now, those like Matt | :29:09. | :29:11. | |
and Rhiannon are left to adjust their lives | :29:12. | :29:18. | |
to fit the trains. The boss said, "Look, | :29:19. | :29:21. | |
you need to adjust your travel plans I now get the 7:23, | :29:22. | :29:24. | |
so I arrive 8:15. So I'm about 45 minutes | :29:25. | :29:32. | |
early for work. I'm not sure. Obviously they promise | :29:33. | :29:45. | |
every year the service will improve and more investment has been done on | :29:46. | :29:48. | |
the network and things like that. I've been using this service | :29:49. | :29:50. | |
for six years and haven't At the moment it's | :29:51. | :29:52. | |
a roll of the dice. | :29:53. | :29:59. |