MACHYNLLETH’S Arriva Trains Wales depot has played a huge role in improvements to rail services on the Cambrian Line, the company has insisted.
Arriva has confirmed it has pulled out of the tender to run rail services in the Wales and Borders area, with that announcement leading to uncertainty over whether the depot in Machynlleth will be taken on by the successful new bidder or if those bidders will choose to have maintenance carried out at a different location.
However, Arriva has paid tribute to the work of staff at the depot and insisted that it has played a large role in service improvements on the Cambrian Line and a major increase in the number of passenger journeys since 2003.
Gareth Thomas, Arriva Trains Wales director, said passenger journeys had increased from 18 million on Wales and Borders services each year in 2003, when Arriva took over, to 31 million.
Mr Thomas said: “Machynlleth depot and our staff there play a vital role in the operation of services on the Cambrian Line and Arriva Trains Wales is fully committed to its operation to the end of our franchise.
“Significant investment has been made in the depot over the last decade by ourselves and our partners in Network Rail and we are proud to have grown our Machynlleth workforce from 10 to 33 in that time.
“The location of the depot has been incredibly important with the development of the ERTMS signalling system and has helped contribute to more trains being run on the Cambrian Line last year than at any point since the 1960s.”
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