A staggering number of train services to Swansea and west Wales have been cancelled, raising concerns among passengers about reliability and satisfaction.
Swansea: Can you believe it? Over a thousand trains meant to take folks to Swansea and west Wales were cancelled in just one year! Since Transport for Wales (TfW) took over from Arriva in 2018, things have been pretty rocky for them.
People are really fed up with the delays and cancellations. And despite what TfW says, it’s hard to see any real improvements. Just last month, they were rated the worst for customer satisfaction among UK train operators. Only 72% of passengers were happy with the service, which is way below the next worst operator.
Jan Chaudhry-Van der Velde, TfW’s chief operating officer, tried to explain it away. He mentioned a big transformation program is underway, but it’s been a tough year for passengers with all the construction and bus replacements. He promised that new trains are on the way, but it’s been a long wait.
Back in 2018, the Welsh Government promised that 95% of rail journeys would be on new trains by 2023. That hasn’t happened, and the pandemic has been blamed for the delays. But hey, at least new trains are finally arriving, right?
Still, it’s hard to see how much progress will be made next year. Reports show that less than a third of TfW services are actually using new trains. Delyth Jewell MS from Plaid Cymru summed it up well: five years in, and we’re still dealing with old, late trains and unhappy customers.
Traveling to west Wales has been especially tough. I heard from a regular traveler who said getting home is always a gamble. It can take as long to get from Cardiff to Swansea as it does to get from London to Cardiff! And often, they end up taking a bus instead.
One passenger shared a story about arriving home in Swansea three hours late. Apparently, during one weekend, every taxi in Swansea was called to the station because train services were cancelled. Can you imagine the costs piling up for the train companies?
We even asked TfW how much they spent on replacement buses and taxis over the past year, but they said it would take too much effort to find out. However, they did confirm that 1,054 services to Swansea and further west were cancelled between August 2022 and August 2023. That’s almost three trains a day!
Ms. Jewell expressed her concern about the cancellations, especially as it gets darker earlier in the year. With high ticket prices and so many cancellations, it’s no wonder people feel let down.
And it doesn’t look like things will get better anytime soon. The Welsh Government has warned that train reliability might actually decrease in the next five years. It’s frustrating to see promises from Westminster that never come through.
TfW insists they only cancel services as a last resort and are working hard to provide alternatives when they do. They’re rolling out new trains that should be more comfortable and reliable, but we’ll have to wait and see how that goes.
