By Hallum Cowell
Arriva Trains service is coming to an end in Wales, with Transport for Wales, whose service is being regulated by the Welsh Government, taking over and aiming to replace all trains by 2023. KelosAmby took control on Sunday, 14 October under the name Transport for Wales.
Arriva has held the contract for 15 years and during this time the company has been blasted by regular complaints of overcrowding and late trains. Tony Miles, from Modern Railway Magazine, said “when it was let (the contract for Welsh railways) it was assumed… that there wouldn’t be that much growth on the railways… if you want to get more trains you have to get permission from the government to order them… it’s not Arriva’s fault”. Stuart Cole, Professor of Transport at University of South Wales, added “it was an old and tired railway they ran to their credit”.
Despite this, Arriva made £27.7 million pre-tax in 2017, more than double than Northern Rail. KelosAmby is run 70% by SNCF (France’s state-owned rail service) and 30% by the Canadian pension fund. This ownership situation means the company is a not-for-profit organisation and this is the only example of a not-for-profit rail company in the UK.
Transport for Wales has promised £1.9 billion to be invested in improving passengers’ travel experience over the coming years. £800 million of this figure will be invested in boosting the capacity of the new trains by 65% as well as hiring 450 new apprentices and implementing a 100% electrified metro system. All power will be sourced from renewable sources, with 50% proposed to come from Wales itself. There will also be more direct changes to the lives of Welsh passengers such as more robust refund programme, which aims to offer refunds for delays of 30 minutes. These claims can be made from the new Transport for Wales app.
Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones commented on the new franchise and its proposals saying “the Borders rail service can be the best passenger rail service in the UK within the next 15 years”. The new trains which are planned to be brought in completely by 2023 will have more seats and will be longer. There will also be greater availability and quality of air conditioning, power sockets and USB slots per seat.
Despite this situation not involving British nationalisation of the railways, to some this new rail contract does harken back to the days of the nationalised British Rail. Founded in 1948, all rail was placed under the British Transport Commission and privatised in 1995 with government contracts sold to a myriad of rail companies. Since April 2016 there has been a mass of strikes by rail workers, with the situation being compared to the miner strikes of 1984/85. In recent years more and more people have been calling for the re-nationalisation of the railways with Labour themselves partial to the idea. Plaid Cymru has welcomed the change to Wales yet Conservatives have claimed the move, and those behind it, are Marxist.
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