Hello & welcome to the fourth episode of Failed Franchises. In this series I look at train companies that have failed at their franchise agreements or have been criticised by passengers & industry alike. Today is Arriva Trains Wales – legally they haven’t been stripped of their franchise, but can they be classed as a failed franchise for their intense criticisms from industry and passengers alike? That’s what I’m trying to answer today!
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Hello and welcome back to the fourth installment of my failed franchises Series in this series I look at failed rail franchises whether this be their contract being stripped from them or the franchise simply being deemed poor by the Publican industry this being today’s franchise ARA trains Wales although
Their franchise was not stripped by the government they were heavily scrutinized by the public and Industry alike but was this scrutiny deserved were ARA trains whales really that bad and should they be class ified as a failed franchise find out in today’s video just before this video starts I just want to
Preemptively apologize for my Welsh pronunciation I hope you enjoyed the video nevertheless and let’s get into it during the privatization of prison’s Railway Network in the late 1990s there was much debate over how wales’s franchises should be organized eventually it was decided that Wales would be split into three franchises
First Northwestern who would operate the Northwest section of England and Northern Wales to hollyhead then there was the valley lines franchises for local services in and around Cardiff finally the Wales and West franchise served the remainder of South and West Wales as well as areas in Southwest England also Central trains operated the
Cambrian Coastline over to abis in 2000 the Strategic rail Authority announced it wanted a single all Wales franchise with the Wales and West branding being dropped and the valley lines company taking over all of the Wales and West franchise operations the Cambrian line part of central trains and first
Northwestern services along the northwes coast along to rexim and later in 2003 along to Manchester and burum this new joint Wales franchise was named Wales and borders the previous Wales and West services that operate in the south of England were incorporated into the new Wessex trains franchise and later into
The Great Western franchise first first Northwestern Services were eventually incorporated into the trans panana Express and Northern franchises both of which I’ve made videos on the Wales and Border train operating company was launched in October 2001 but this didn’t last long by 2003 the franchise contract
Was up for grabs and Was Won by AA with them branding themselves as AA trains Wales AA promised a more integrated Welsh transport Network as well as focusing on providing services using the Welsh language as well as the English one also a reever trains Wales or atw as
I will refer to them in this video promised to introduce seven more class 150s to increase capacity also they would make a new simplified timetable as well as abolishing the one pound cycle reservation system and improv compensation schemes for passengers the Strategic rail Authority believed atw would help to create a more integrated
Wal franchise in December 2003 atw commenced on what would be a 15 year contract until 2018 ariva trains Wales operated services along North Wales mid Wales and South Wales and in an around Cardiff in North Wales Services ran from hollyhead and cland dno towards Shrewsbury buram and Cardiff as well as shuttle services
Along the Conway Valley Line to blof Fest in York as well as this ARA trains Wales ran services along the Borderlands line from rexam to bidston with connections onwards to Liverpool in mid Wales Services ran along the cambian line from abber iswith fi and mlin towards Shrewsbury and Birmingham New
Street extending to Birmingham International in 2008 due to the busyness of New Street also atw operated the remote heart of Wales line several times a day running from shrew to Swansea by krod andle with the line being popular for its stunning scenery in the South atw operated hourly from
Karen to Manchester via Cardiff as well as services from fishguard tenb and Milford Haven 8 W also operated hourly along the swan line between Swansea and Cardiff in Cardiff and The Valleys ariva trains Wales operated an intense half hourly service from Ponty PR to tr Herbert Abron to abair Abron to mura
Tiil and later B to rimy as well as services to panf ariva trains Wales upgraded the timetable to introduce up to six trains an hour between Ponty PR and Cardiff and four trains now from BW to Cardiff ARA trains Wales also upgraded several stations on the TR
Heret and rley lines to accommodate six car trains atw also operates some services from Karan and swans to Brighton Bristol Portsmouth Plymouth and penans Via Cardiff eventually Great Western Railway took over the running of these Services ARA trains Wales operated all services in Wales except for some Great Western
Railway cross country and virgin trains routes by 2004 atw had achieved one of its main goals to include more bilingual signage and include well wel spoken customer service bilingual signs were introduced in all Welsh stations where the name differed from the English one and a Welsh telephone line was introduced in
2004 which won the best Welsh website of 2004 a year later the Glamorgan line was reopened to passenger traffic for the first time in 40 years the line from bridgen to Cardiff via Roose Cardiff International Airport opened on the 10th of June 2005 costing 177 million the line did have some controversy mostly
Due to the lack of frequency on the line having just one train an hour with the Wes conservative party suggesting that it lacked ambition in 2006 the transport whales Act was passed putting all responsibilities for the franchise in the government’s hand with the government closely coordinating operations with ARA trains Wales this
Saw Direct Services between North and South Wales were introduced and in 2008 another major line was reopened the line to e Vale e Vil Parkway opening on 6 of February 2008 with the route finally extended to eille town in May 2015 new stations were built at Clan HTH
Newbridge crosky risk and Ponty mister reron and P Corner in 2014 the line was a huge success and smashed all Targets achieving over 570,000 passenger Journeys in its first four year of operations in 2008 Rea launched a new Premier Service between hollyhead and Cardiff the service originally named
Gerald of Wales was funded by the Welsh government as a premium way of traveling the long journey between North and South Wales ARA trains Wales subleased four class 57 locos from Virgin West Coast with one Mark 3 carriage and three Mark 2 coaches in 2012 the service was
Upgraded with class 67s taking over from the 57s and newer Mark 3s replacing the remainder of the mark 2s running now with a driving van trailer also in 2012 the route was re-rooted to avoid crew and now called via Rex General and Chester under atw the Premier Services
And later the business class Services renamed to promote business Travelers rup twice a day with 0532 and 0751 hollyhead departures Bound for Cardiff and a 1615 and 1818 return services to hollyhead in 2014 a third Mark reset was introduced to run from hollyhead to Manchester the services were popular and
Still operates as transport for Wales today using Mark vs instead of Mark 3 in 2009 ARA trains Wales attempted to gain a permission from the government to run a service from abber iswith to London marban via buram International and lemington Spa two Services would have ran per day with additional
Services on weekends and summer sadly however the government was concerned that they would directly compete and possibly outco compete the rexim and shopshire Open Access train operating company and wouldn’t allow the operator to be profitable in March 2010 for competition reasons ARA’s bid was rejected ironically re shopshire ceased
Operations just a year later perhaps a failed franchise video in the future the first few years for AA trains Wales weren’t too Dreadful they completed most of their franchise obligations and improved the timetable for most Journeys however for passengers the Rolling Stock let a Reaver down they
Inherited a feat of all diesel multiple units excluding the Premier Service and these all dated from the mid 1980s and 1990s the infamous trains class 142 and 143s operated local services in and around the Welsh Capital with the 30 Pacers roughly following the operations of the former Valley Lions company ARA
Trains Wales also inherited 29 class 150s adding another seven shortly after beginning operations with these units being used across the network being able to operate to most locations on the ARA trains Welles Network including services to Manchester and Burham which they really weren’t intended to do the similar class 15 freeze also followed
The same deployment methods but mostly stuck to less intensive routes where possible due to the class only having one car per train such as the branch and services on along the heart of Wales line ARA trains Wales also operated class 158 these operated on the Burmingham to abber iswith routes and
Were the only train to be able to be operated along these lines due to the ects requirements along the Cambrian line the 158 also operated Services across world in England being suitable for more long-distance Regional services this also related to the class 175s built in the late ’90s and early ughs
The 27 dmus operated exclusively on Regional Services across Wales and into England however at first ariva trains worlds had to share the units with the brand new First transparan Express franchise until transparan Express got the new class 185s delivered First transpan Express required 11 units per
Day in 2006 atw purchased a class 121 bubble car unit for shuttles from Cardiff Bay to Cardiff Queen Street to free up a class 153 or 150 this bubble car service ran until severe failure of the unit in 2013 led to it being sold to sister company
Chilton as spare parts to keep running their micro Fleet of class one 121s this relatively old fleet was by no means Dreadful but local Services especially on the Pacers were deeply unpopular with most Services being very busy due to unprecedented passenger growth rising over 30 million passengers for the first
Time ever in 2015 however busy though 80w were relatively reliable averaging around a 90% on time rate in their first 6 years of operations climbing all the way up to 96% in 2014 back to chronological order though in 2014 atw increased services on the Cambrian and heart of Wales lines ARA trains Wales
Introduced hourly Peak Services between abber iswith and Shrewsbury and more evening services on the cambian coast between barmouth and fi ariva trains Wales also introduced an extra Journey from clany to Swansea and between cland rod and crew via Shrewsbury along the heart of Wales line the move came to
Improve connections along the cambian coast especially for students at abis University to introduce the hourly services along the caman coast Network rail had to close five level Crossings along the line however although these improvements were deemed a success the improvements to the premier service to all Mark 3 operations proved to be a
Little more chaotic in September 2014 a door on one of the Mark 3 coaches was ripped off its hinges in a tunnel whilst running in the Banger area on a peak time service towards Cardiff although no injuries occurred it did hint at poor atw maintenance on its trains and if the
Service was overcrowded which it usually was then the outcome could have been far worse AA trains whales said that safety was their priority and there was no similar other incidents throughout atw’s remaining years of service although the incident shouldn’t have happened in the first place 2014 was the year Services
Really began to decline with overcrowding now being publicly reported in mainstream news due to the frequency and level of overcrowding atw issued a public apology in November 2014 following high levels of overcrowding in the previous month atw blame leaves on the line trains hitting trees and freight trains
Breaking down leading to A reduced number of trains being able to be deployed each day and services being ciled frequently ARA trains Wales had to take stock from local services to be used to run on Regional Services due to its lack of stock this lack of stock was
Caused by leaves on the line affecting the wheels in the train leading to far more repairs than usual as well as this two class 175s had serious maintenance issues from hitting a tree the overcrowding had led to poor publicity and seriously hindered the reputation of atw this was exacerbated by 48 hour rmt
Strike that occurred in November 2015 the rmt claimed that atw hadn’t made an adequate pay offer to its staff despite the rmt postponing previous strikes to allow talks to take place the 48 hour strike led to all rmt drivers told not to book for any Duty between Thursday
And Friday with many services canceled or curtailed and some stations not receiving a single rail service on the two days in 2015 upgrades to the line between Rex and Chester were also delayed until 2017 despite being given the go-ahead all the way back in 2013
The upgrades was see a 5.5 m stretch of track between voset and suly doubled to enable an hourly service to run several level Crossings were also planned to be upgraded as part of the project cring 44 million pounds this led to overcrowding on services along the line services
Being far more infrequent than they should be and general passenger unsatisfaction a year later in 2016 four the class 175s A atw operated were forced to be taken out of service due to corrosion issues with the fleet as well as this all the class 150s had corrosion problems with
The whole Fleet undergoing repairs across 2016 leading to huge capacity shortages with atw for whatever reason unable to run their locco stock at weekends to boost capacity most likely due to lack of Crews trained on the sets a Rea trains Wales used all available units per day to meet capacity demand so
Some 175s and 150s being out of service was detrimental to the service although atw managed to fix repairs to the 175s and 150s by the summer just a few months later the yearly reports were out regarding the company’s finances they recorded that R trains Wales made a huge 6.9% profit after tax
Nearly double the amount that other companies of similar sizes made economy Minister Ken skates suggested ARA trains Wales were ging for government investment when it was totally not needed the franchise was already the most heavily subsidized in the UK receiving up to1 160 million a year aiva combed High profits by highlighting how
They had invested more money than stated in their contract and the 2003 franchise failed to anticipate the high passenger growth that Wales had seen the company was featured in a BBC Wales program week in week out which saw the company slammed for high profits and overcrowding in Cardiff with
Overcrowding rising at a faster rate than anywhere outside of London the high passenger numbers an 11 million increase from 2003 to 2017 had led to huge profits for the company and huge overcrowding AA had suggested that they operated 20% more services than contractually stated and had invested 32.5 million since
2003 ARA was also slated for the terrible facilitation of events H in Cardiff such as the Six Nations and the 2016 Rugby World Cup ARA trains Wales forced 70,000 fans to wait queuing outside in the pouring rain for hours however were prayed for their customer service and people Management on event
Days despite intense overcrowding ariva also stabbed at Network Rail and their delays in electrification products across the UK suggesting that this had led to a huge diesel stock shortage which is by no means incorrect atw also operated the UK’s oldest Rolling Stock by average age with the contract not
Facilitating any new Rolling Stock services on the E fail line were so unreliable that most Services arrived at least 30 minutes delayed Network ra only invested 1% of its annual budget in Wales despite the country being home to 6% of all Royal infrastructure the announcement of the South Wales Metro by
The government in 2017 did bring hope to passengers but it would not be started until riva’s contract was over in 2018 2017 was by far the worst year to date for AA trains Wales and their operations with just a year left on their contract they had no interest in
Upgrading their rolling stock or investing in the service in September 2017 YouTuber Stuart Thomas reviewed atw on his st’s reviews Series in the episode he looked at the intense overcrowding and poor Fleet conditions in Cardiff with Stuart himself affected by a Rea trains Wales with him commuting
From Mountain Ash to University each day in the review he even caught a passenger fting as you’re seeing on screen now I think someone might be someone actually fainted someone has actually just fainted and that is not a lie extremely sorry delet service Tak caiting ambulance Stuart highlighted how he hope the next
Franchise would help change things in the network and would be a chance to start fresh commuting in South Wales was not at all a good thing ARA trains Wales reported that since 2013 there had been a rise of 250,000 commuters with Rolling Stock increases being highly minimal
Aging paces and class 150s were by no means fit for purpose on the railways with the Pacers being slated for their poor accessibility and terrible ride quality passengers described the service as absolutely horrendous and utterly shambolic another commuter suggested it was only a matter of time before there
Was a serious accident from the overcrowding with another commuter highlighting how every day he was packed in the train like cattle with little breathing room atw once again fell back on the contract being poorly written and the fact that ARA trains were had completed several modernization schemes
And had refur all their Rolling Stock in May 2017 atw upgraded their card if timetable to enable 127 more trains to run with 600 extra seats into Cardiff per day but suggested storms such as storm mine had set them back ariva trains Wales also blamed Network rail engineering overruns which led to some
Stock being unable to leave depos across the network atw did however acknowledge the uncomfortable conditions on their trains in October 2017 Welsh rail passengers were greeted by good news aiva had decided to drop out of the running for the contract in 2018 they stated that it
Had not been an easy decision and they were proud to have provided services in Wales since 2003 rexam Member of Parliament Ian Lucas said few tears will be shed with him highlighting how Wales needed an imaginative franchise holder to enable the South Wales Metro to be fulfilled kola’s Amy won the new
Franchise and promised 148 brand new trains by 2023 however after this announcement ARA was put in some good light for the first time in several years ariva trains Wales had finished 2017 as the UK’s most reliable operator with 273,000 Services arriving on time 82.8% across the year atw Rose
The number of services in Wales to over 1,000 a day the highest since the 1960s although atw ended their last foure strong their last few months iner operation were highly eventful just before we get into R trains wales’s last few months do consider subscribing checking out my full series and joining
Or donating to the channel if you’re enjoying this video a huge thank you to my members Jack’s Railway secrets jmsf and Lou donalan you can join them from as litter as £2.99 a month and get Early Access shout outs in all videos access to private Discord channels and more
Also thanks to my donators Clive’s travel and trains de Rooney G Patterson and Swansea Valley bus spotter who without these videos would be impossible to make thank you everyone and let’s look at Rea trains wales’s last few months of operation figures in January 2018 saw that only 79% of passengers were satisfied with
Revera trains wales’ service just 7% higher than Southern who were considered at the time the worst operator in the UK just 54% deemed ARA trains whales value for money 7% lower than 2016 and just 57% were content at overcrowding levels compared to 91% at virgin am later rer trains whale suspended several
Long-distance Services as all 27 class 175s were taken out of service over severe wheel damage the majority of services between North Wales West Wales and along the marches around Shrewsbury were suspended this hugely affected passengers for several days and led to a surge in complaints a 30% rise 66
Complaints per 100,000 Journeys were recorded the sixth highest in Great Britain punctuality complaints and cancellations were to blame ariva blame these cancellations on the class 175 maintenance issues and adverse weather conditions at the start of 2018 atw also had a poor rate of dealing with complaints with only 76% of
Complaints being handled within 20 days however 92.2% of services run on time 0.4% higher than 2017 another negative before R trains Wales departed pun totally intended was how they dealt with lost wallets before September 2018 any wallets lost on Rea Services were not handed out freely to their owners once found instead atw
Charged the owner’s £2 per wallet plus pocketing 10% of any cash inside the policy was only reversed after it got social media presence on Twitter with one tweet reaching nearly 1,000 likes on the topic for ARA trains Wales though this was the last of any problems with them being the
Operator as on the 14th of October 2018 ariva trains Wales handed over all operations to the new franchise named transport for Wales in its 15 years of operations ariva trains Wales had been through many lows usually overcrowding and unsuitable Rolling Stock however the company with support from Network rail
The government and EU funding did progress with a lot of their promises and more AA trains Wales had helped complete several projects such as major redesigns of Newport Swansea brident and Port Tolbert station refurbishments at kley Shrewsbury and cwin Bay all in 2018 alone the addition of step-free access
At 13 stations 168 stations receiving new information screens 45 New Station shelters hundreds of ticket machines car parking spaces and secure cycle storage new stations at fish garden goodwick enland and chural park and Clan Haren a second platform installed at gon the 100 million pound investment of the E ra
Line and finally a refurbishment of their whole Fleet including the class 142 150 158 and 175s from where raver trains World began they had come a long way and achieved a lot although Services were overcrowded and often delayed some of those Services wouldn’t have run without AA trains
Wales AA trains Wales also achieved perhaps the main aim linking Wales they had created a unified Welsh Network under a successful singular brand increasing Services Across the Nation professors of Transport at the University of South Wales were surprised R trains Wales did so well managing to run a reliable and intense service with
Quite old stock for some it was sad to see R trains whales leave for more though it was a chance to trust ra again under a new operator this was confirmed when many people celebrated the new kolis Amy transport for Wales franchise a party was held in Central Cardiff for
Example the new franchise promised to replace all of their Fleet with brand new trains which would also see the Pacers replaced fully by 2020 however this new operator TFW had a pretty shaky start to life in November 2018 a quarter of All Transport for Wales trains were
Put out of service due to huge repair backlogs 36 out of 127 trains were out of service and although TFW didn’t point a finger at atw’s maintenance they did emphasize the age of the fleet they had had inherited and the below par maintenance of units ARA trains Wales
Highlighted how they went above and beyond to ensure a smooth Handover and Ensure High stock maintenance however TFW did suffer with maintenance issues with a reer trains Wales probably to blame for this James price chief executive of Transport for Wales said that tfws fleet was not maintained quite
As well as it could have been by a rer trains Wales with it being a bit worse than we thought it was later found out out by Ken skates the ARA train Wales carried out the bare minimum when it came to maintenance contractual obligations former ARA trains wh’s
Managing director now across country Tom Joiner said it was the smoothest franchise Handover he had ever seen with him suggesting TFW visited ARA trains Wales Cardiff Canton dep Depot and did not see any sign of being unimpressed although whether TFW visited any other ARA trains wh depos is unclear
Eventually Bill Kelly from Network rail took the hit and apologized to transport for Wales passengers with him rightly highlighting how passengers weren’t interested in excuses but action eventually the squabbling and arguing between TFW and atw finished with a Rea trains wales’s last harah being a desperate attempt to stop backlash on
The already ceased operator so since 2018 how have transport for whs done in changing wh’s travel well the new class 197s class 230s markv coaches and class 231s have been an overall upgrade to the old Pacers and sprinters they replaced however all units have had their criticisms and Praises Services took a
Hit in covid and the franchise was nationalized in 2021 so are not at the stage TFW envisioned them to be at although frequen is adequate and roughly the same as atws another thing that is as same as it was under raver trains Wales is the overcrowding although all of TFW stock
Had been refurbished and all the Pacers class 170s and class 175s had been replaced at the time of recording by newer Fleet overcrowding is still a huge issue on the network constant short forms especially on Manchester Cardiff Services where five car locco sets are sometimes replaced by two car class 150s
Have led to huge overcrowding with the withdrawal of the paces and 175s ironically causing more issues than Solutions yes the paces were terrible trains but the services in The Valleys do need some temporary improvements with most local Serv is AC cross Cari being two car class 150s the withdrawal of class 769 also
Hasn’t helped the South Wales Metro should fix these issues but new class 75 sixs and class 39 8s aren’t expected to begin service for the next few years so the overcrowding issues will remain the class 150s are now around their 40th birthdays and are desperately inadequate at running commuity services and
Sometimes Regional Services across the country although transport for whales have and will make improvements at the time of recording the operator is not perfect although they are by no means a bad operator anyways back to ARA trains Wales in conclusion can ARA trains Wales be classified as a failed franchise well
Legally no their franchise wasn’t stripped from them and they had a relatively successful 15 years finishing their tenure as the most reliable operator in Great Britain and completing some major infrastructure and Rolling Stock projects however we can’t Overlook the severe overcrowding and just general poor service ARA provided over the 15
Years for some commuting under ARA trains Wales it was a torrid experience especially in and around Cardiff although it’s not like things have improved for a huge amount of people since TFW took over hence why I would say that ariva trains Wales isn’t a failed franchise but you could debate that
Personally I never went on a rer train’s Wales but looking at it the franchise agreement was to blame ariva themselves didn’t do anything wrong necessarily and did follow through with promises it was just the contract was poorly written and didn’t realize the huge passenger growth that would occur hence the huge
Overcrowding but as I never traveled in the company at least I wasn’t able to remember it I can’t at all say what my thoughts are perhaps you can though thank you so much for watching this fourth installment of my failed franchises series do make sure you check
Out the previous free episodes and any of my other videos that you might enjoy thanks so much for watching I’ll see you in the next video goodbye Sh
24 Comments
Arriva took over my local bus service and cut it. Absolute scum in my opinion
Well my longest video yet! Hope you did enjoy and leave any suggestions as to what my next Failed Franchise video should be below! Thanks for watching 😀
Something I always found odd as a Welsh speaker is something from the Arriva days that continues to present is that my local line (the Cambrian Line) goes through Welsh speaking communities, yet the announcement on trains are exclusively in English, platform announcements are bilingual but nothing on the trains, whilst services in South Wales, which is much less Welsh speaking, had bilingual announcements throughout
These videos are incredibly interesting. Keep on making them please!
I really dont think they were too bad. They expanded services and how you described it sounded brilliant, they integrated welsh stations names and phone line which shows they cared about the communities they served and had one of the best punctuality records. The union strike action although annoying i can let that go as that could and has happened to many operators and its the government who sanctions new rolling stock so ATW could only do their best with what they had to work with ❤
9:22 did i have a stroke or did he say ECTS ? Can anyone else confirm?
If arriva wasn’t so stubborn on replacing old dmu’s and lowering overcrowding they may still be in service today. In the valleys pretty much everyone got tired with just the sight of a pacer let alone riding in.
I am 30seconds into the video, and before I continue, as somebody who lives in Wales, I will answer your question. YES!!! OMFG, YES! They were that bad. I used to have to get on the train every morning and take it 2 stops in the wrong direction because there was a 50/50 chance that when it came back it wouldn't stop because it was too full. During summer, the queues at Barry Island station were mental, sometimes over 2 hours to get on a 2 carriage Pacer. TfW has a lot of flaws, but at least we can see that they are investing in trying to improve things now.We are getting lifts in stations and new trainscoming eventually. For Arriva, we, the passangers were just a cash cow where they crammed on 2 carriage trains to capacity and took our money with none of it re-invested in anything other than dividends for the shareholders.
There's franchises that were denied an extension (despite deserving one) – like GNER, South West Trains, and Arriva Trains Wales.
And then there are the really wretched failed franchises that were right to be 'killed off' – such as Connex South Central/Connex South Eastern, WAGN, Thames Trains, National Express East Coast, and One.
And then there are the existing franchises which definitely have a question mark against them – Northern, Southern, Avanti West Coast, and TPE.
In all honesty, I think the time has come to bring the railways back together again under a state-run roof. It's bonkers not having one organisation that's responsible for both track, trains, and stations. Really it just no longer makes any sense.
Why do you think the Swiss, and the Japanese haven't copied us? Because they both know this doesn't make sense. It's a recipe for failed communications, and sometimes disaster (Railtrack, Potter's Bar, Hatfield, Ladbroke.Grove etc).
Why can't the UK admit it's got it wrong when it comes to railway privatisation, get off its high horse, be abit more humble; and learn from the Swiss, and Japanese. How have both got things so right, where we've got them so wrong?
Nice to see nothing has changed now the government has taken over transport for wales, 1 or 2 car trains for about 100 – 200 people. Going in a Transport for wales trains is genuinely a horrible experience.
This is something that drives me mad – having family in Ireland and living in Manchester, there is simply no excuse for not having direct services from Manchester Victoria to Holyhead as SailRail services without having to change at Chester, Crewe or Lladnuo – Manchester Piccadilly has long been and is totally unsuitable to operate this service, especially Platforms 13 & 14 and these trains don’t even call at Deansgate/Castlefield – there should be direct services from Hull, Leeds & Manchester Victoria to Holyhead, express from Manchester Victoria to Holyhead if timed to meet ferry check-in and arrival times, even overnight services – if we are really serious about having a viable alternative to flying and air travel, we really do need to (collectively) “cop ourselves on” and get this implemented as quickly as possible, without putting forward all manner of lame excuses – it’s about time that the Chinese CCP were given direct, total and complete control of the U.K. railways in order to develop them in the way they should be, as the current situation is totally unacceptable in the 21st Century, the most obvious example of which has been the failure of HS2 with eye-watering costs – ever since the 1960’s the U.K. railways have been totally mismanaged by people who have time and again consistently shown and proven beyond all doubt their total incompetence, while the service goes down while fares go up – the high speed rail project under the Irish Sea from Holyhead to Dublin has been shelved so many times that it’s beyond a sick joke at this stage
Whoever runs the trains in Wales, why don’t they just be honest and call themselves “Cardiff Rail” as it’s a poor service everywhere else in Wales.
The problem with ATW as now with Tfw is they're fighting with one hand tied behind their back in terms of rolling stock acquisition.
Though that said the 197s are already unfit for purpose when they're on the longer distance runs (Manchester-Cardiff, Holyhead-Cardiff etc).
Lovely video as always
Wuh Oh new Vanmanyo(🥰🥰🥰) video, cleanup "ARRIVA"ing on Isle MY PANTS
I think your Welsh pronunciation is good. You did the Ll’s well. The “Aberron” threw me completely though. I had to rewind it a few times! I think you meant Abercynon. (Abb-err-kun-non) people often make a mistake with Pontypridd too (it’s Pont-errr-prith (th as in “the” “the book” – not Pont-tea-prith”)) Y in Welsh is urghhhhh
Tom Joyner actually swiftly left CrossCountry a few weeks ago. The situation is a bit weird, with him not even acknowledging, which makes you wonder if something else is going on behind the scenes.
Great video!
Maybe do London midland??? I'm not sure the info about it but yh
Ariva are the worst of the worst example you barley never get a seat from picadilly to crewe or nantwich i once saw an elderly person sat on the floor so you judge for yourself they are disgusting !!!
When i lived in Craven Arms, I used to regularly travel to Shrewsbury. I liked the 175s. They're nice clean, quiet efficient modern trains. It wasn't ATWs fault that the wheels were damaged or one hit a tree. That is poor track condition.
I hate 150s though. They're noisy, dirty, smelly and slow. Im surprised they're still running after 40 years. Im glad i never traveled on a pacer.
I used to work for arriva west sussex busses and in my experience it was standard for arrival to not invest in new vehicles and was standard for faults reported to be signed off as fixed when a fitter had not even been near the said vehicle or fault should ne er be allowed to operate in the UK as far a i'm concerned
Thanks Dan, a very thorough and well-researched history of a train operator. I wouldn't say they were a failure – they seemed to run out of steam! I loved the clip of the cat strolling across the tracks.
Another great video packed with information! UK railways are generally still a bit of a mess. I'm not sure how long it will take until our railways to properly improve.