TfW rejects 'artificially boosted' performance figures claim

Emily Price

Transport for Wales has rejected a claim by the shadow transport minister that reopening a valleys line "artificially boosted" the rail operator's performance figures.

Natasha Asghar says the closure of the Treherbert line for major engineering works last year impacted TfW's 2024 improvement figures after it was reopened.

The line had been closed for 10 months whilst transformational works to upgrade part of the South Wales Metro took place.

Ms Asghar says that reopening it caused a large drop in cancellations and delays - therefore skewing year on year performance data.

Figures for the period April to June 2024 showed TfW made the biggest improvement of any UK train company for punctuality (+8.1%) and reliability (cancellations reduced by 3.2%), compared to the same period in 2023.

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'Smokescreen'

She said: "The so-called recent improvements reported by Labour-run Transport for Wales are clearly a smokescreen.

"The decision to close the Treherbert line last year for ten months caused significant disruption, understandably then making this year's numbers seem as if they were much better.

"Whilst passengers across Wales will likely see some improvement from the re-opening of the Treherbert line, they will unfortunately continue to suffer from overall delays, cancellations, and poor service, once again exposing Labour's failure to deliver any real progress."

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Performance

TfW says the shadow transport minister's claim is incorrect because services removed to make way for engineering work are not included in the Office of Rail and Road's (ORR) daily performance figures.

A spokesperson for Transport for Wales said: "Statistics for services removed for planned long-term engineering work, such as the closure of the Treherbert Line, are not included in the ORR’s daily performance figures, so have had no impact on 2023 or 2024 data.

"The recent performance data is based on actual times of more than 1,000 services a day across the Wales and Borders network, which have shown a year-on-year improvement."