{"id":14284,"date":"2017-01-20T15:56:45","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T15:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/?p=14284"},"modified":"2017-01-20T16:08:35","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T16:08:35","slug":"call-for-more-carriages-on-ageing-arriva-trains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/call-for-more-carriages-on-ageing-arriva-trains\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for more carriages on ageing Arriva trains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Arriva Trains Wales are under pressure to improve their service after a critical report was released by MPs.<\/p>\n<p>The Welsh Affairs Committee says the number of commuters on trains has increased by 75% in the last ten years but\u00a0carriages\u00a0have not been upgraded. \u00a0The report says this has led to overcrowding for commuters.<\/p>\n<p>The report focuses on\u00a0the Wales and Borders train franchise. \u00a0The franchise is managed by the Welsh Government, which has paid Arriva Trains Wales \u00a3750m in subsidies over the last five years. \u00a0The report criticises the original contract awarded in 2003, calling it a &#8220;failure&#8221;. \u00a0 The contract &#8220;did not consider such a large growth in commuter numbers,&#8221; leaving Wales &#8220;deprived.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The ageing of trains is also criticised in the report. \u00a0The oldest train in Arriva&#8217;s fleet is forty years old and\u00a0parts of the\u00a0Wales and Borders franchise do not offer the same facilities as other trains in the UK, such as refreshments and wifi.\u00a0\u00a0The report says the average train age across the franchise is twenty seven years.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 600px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-14284-1\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Arriva3.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Arriva3.mp4\">http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Arriva3.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p><sup>The figures behind the Wales and Borders franchise renewal.<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The Wales and Borders rail franchise contract will be renewed in 2018 and Arriva Trains Wales face competition from Abellio, KeolisAmey and MTR. \u00a0 \u00a0The report released on the franchise recognises that the current contract needs updating to meet passenger requirements.<\/p>\n<p>Arriva Trains Wales say they welcome the report, which highlights additional investment they have made that was not part of the original contract. \u00a0They also admit there is an issue with overcrowding but say that there are no &#8220;easy or quick answers to this problem&#8221;. \u00a0Head of the Welsh Affairs Committee David Davies MP says Arriva Trains Wales &#8220;have been working quite well with the Welsh Assembly to overcome problems&#8221; with the original contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arriva Trains Wales are under pressure to improve their service after a critical report was released by MPs. The Welsh Affairs Committee says the number of commuters on trains has increased by 75% in the last ten years but\u00a0carriages\u00a0have not been upgraded. \u00a0The report says this has led to overcrowding for commuters. The report focuses [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[743,744],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14284"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14612,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14284\/revisions\/14612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}