Never Arriva

On Friday I am meeting the Managing Director of Arriva Trains to discuss a range of issues raised with me by constituents. The Rhondda Leader today has more on this. Yesterday I decided to draw some of the problems to the attention of the First Minister:

Leighton Andrews: Are you aware that in the Rhondda, Arriva Trains Wales is rapidly gaining the nickname ‘never Arriva’? When you next have the opportunity, will you take up with Arriva, under the terms of the franchise, a range of issues relating to punctuality, to the quality of the rolling stock and to the ability of Arriva to collect fares from passengers? At present, in the Rhondda, and, I suspect in many other Valley constituencies, Arriva Trains is rapidly becoming something of a music hall joke.

The First Minister: As I said to Laura Anne five minutes ago, it is the case that the rail service companies that service Wales, Arriva included, are at the bottom of the league table for reliability, or near the bottom. I think that Arriva’s position has been improving recently.

Well, we'll see. They've a long way to go.