Arriva pledge over Shropshire crowded trains
Tuesday 9th November 2010, 8:04AM GMT.
Rail passengers “face substantial increases in already unacceptable overcrowding levels” by 2014 and beyond, a report by MPs said today.
The Department for Transport’s latest plans showed that all the relevant targets for increasing the number of passenger places on trains by March 2014 will be missed. There will be 15 per cent fewer extra places delivered in London in the morning peak and 33 per cent fewer into other major cities.
This is in comparison with the numbers the DfT stated would be needed just to hold overcrowding at current levels, the report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said.
The report said it was “not clear to passengers where the money from increased fares has been spent.”
In Shropshire, overcrowding is a problem on the Shrewsbury-Wolverhampton line during the week, leading to it being dubbed the “sardine express”.
Service provider Arriva Trains Wales said today it had rigorous measures in place to monitor overcrowding on its services and had added 650 additional seats on the Shrewsbury to Birmingham corridor since December 2008.
It also plans to increase Sunday train services from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury from December.
Mike Bagshaw, commercial director for Arriva Trains Wales, said: “Arriva Train Wales has increased the number of services running in Wales, over and above its franchise requirements without any additional public funding on routes where there has been high passenger demand.”
The MPs committee said the DfT’s knowledge of how many people use which parts of the rail network and when was “inadequate and sketchy”.
It recommended that the DfT should require all new train carriages to be fitted with automatic passenger counting equipment to show how many people are travelling on what trains and when.
By Lisa Rowley
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Having stopped commuting since March this year…can anyone update us on if the Arriva morning service to Birmingham has improved at all?
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Unfortunately none of the above ‘pledges’ will improve peak hour commuter services. The only way we will get more capacity is for the Govt to initiate a rolling stock building programme. On another issue why did Arriva Trains Wales completely shut down rail service last Sunday!! There were virtually no trains anywhere from Shrewsbury!!!
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I believe that Arriva staff are in dispute with their employer which affected services over the Arrive network. Please can they also look at providing more security on trains as anti-social behaviour is increasing on trains. Meanwhile, I believe there are engineering works planned from the 20th of this month according to the poster at the station which will affect trains on the shrewsbury to wolves line.
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London Midland also run between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton, as do Wrexham and Shropshire.
What do they intend to do to reduce overcrowding?
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Well, they could put SOME trains on Sundays. Which they don’t, at the moment. That would reduce crowding on Arriva Trains Wales Sunday services.
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The question do any Star journalists travel on this line or bother to do any research before writing articles is relevant – the Arriva rush hour trains have been so much better since they have been running them to Birmingham International, they are nearly always near enough on time and there are often enough seats for people to occupy two seats – one for them and one for their bag!! Normally you can tell when the train only has two coaches that something has gone wrong but this is the exception and I can only remember this happening on a handful of occasions over the last year or so.
If Shropshire Star journalists think this is still a “problem” line for overcrowding they should go to Leeds or Bristol in the morning rush hour and see what people there have to put up with on a daily basis!
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