North Wales MS Mark Isherwood yesterday highlighted the unreliability of the Transport for Wales ‘Class 230’ train service between Wrexham and Bidson and called on the Welsh Government to work to address it.
Questioning the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales in Wednesday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood said despite the Chief Executive of Transport for Wales stating the Class 230 trains “have generally been operating reliably”, concerns are still being raised about this service.
He said:
“Growth Track 360, as you know, is the public-private partnership, uniting North Wales, the Wirral, and Cheshire West and Chester, working to improve cross-border transport connectivity, with specific emphasis on rail. After local concerns about poor service delivery and delays to the introduction of the long-promised half-hourly service on the Wrexham-Bidston line required them to make representations to the Welsh Government, they welcomed the commitment from Welsh Government and Transport for Wales to improve services on the Borderlands line.
“However, how will you engage with Welsh Government colleagues regarding the concern expressed to me by the Wrexham-Bidston Rail Users’ Association about the statement made to me by the Chief Executive of Transport for Wales that ‘the Class 230 trains have generally been operating reliably, and the major technical issues seem to have been resolved’, where they instead state that ‘the continuing unreliability of the Class 230s and their inability to keep scheduled time throughout their full-days’ diagrams suggests that these units will be unable to maintain an hourly service this summer, still less operate a 30-minute frequency in the autumn?”
In her response, the Minister, Lesley Griffith MS, said:
“The new Class 230 train did begin on the Wrexham to Bidston line on 3 April, and I think it's very fair to say that there were some very disappointing delays bringing them into service.”
She added:
“The reliability of those trains has to be Transport for Wales’s focus going forward”.
