Covid: Trains fundamentally safe, says TfW boss

Despite complaints of overcrowding during the pandemic, trains are "fundamentally safe", Transport for Wales has said.

Chief executive James Price said he was "not happy" with some commuters' experiences but new trains would help.

One commuter said trains were "pretty dreadful", delayed and overcrowded.

The Welsh Conservatives' transport spokeswoman Natasha Asghar MS said passengers were being "rammed into trains like sardines".

Formal social distancing rules came to an end in Wales on 7 August but TfW has asked passengers to keep "a respectful distance from others if you can".

Face masks must be worn in most public places including public transport.

Mr Price said regular cleaning of trains was one of the measures which meant coronavirus had not been detected on any of its services.

"I appreciate it doesn't feel right to be on a crowded train in the middle of Covid, but all the tests that we have done and our colleagues in the rest of the UK have done about Covid on trains has not picked up any Covid on train services," he said.

"So we believe that with all the mitigations we're putting in place, trains are fundamentally a safe place to be in comparison to other places that people are going. But we want to do better."

Meanwhile, Wales' Deputy Minister for Climate Change Lee Waters MS defended using a car to attend the launch of a new train.

Following the unveiling of the first of 70 new trains that will form part of the South Wales Metro , he said: "When I had a normal job I would travel everywhere by bike and train.

"My current job is not a normal job so it's unrepresentative, and it's an easy point to make, to say I'm a hypocrite about that."

He said most people's journeys were "simple, repetitive, everyday journeys" and the public transport system was "designed to help most people make those journeys by public transport rather than by car".

"You can always pick on someone and say it won't work for them- but that's a false parallel," he said.

The new trains - 35 Class 231 FLIRT - will form part of the South Wales Metro and will be introduced next year.

They were built by Stadler in Switzerland. Other metro trains are being made by CAF in Newport.

Mr Waters said he hoped the new trains would "change people's perceptions of what public transport is like".

TfW said it hoped new rolling stock would be in use by customers from next year.

The £750m metro system is expected to be completed by 2023.

Once completed, passengers will be able to use the same ticket to travel on trains, trams and buses across south Wales.

TfW said it had been delayed by "months not years" due to the coronavirus pandemic, with work running broadly on schedule to upgrade tracks and build a metro headquarters at Taff's Well.

Transport bosses hope new trains will address current levels of dissatisfaction with rail services in Wales.

A recent YouGov poll suggested 22% of people in Wales think rail provision in their area is bad, with 11% saying they do not have any local train services at all.

A further 22% of people polled said their rail services were good.

Mr Price said its own customer approval score was far higher, but that he "deeply" understood customers' concerns.

Ashley Caldwell, an artist from Caerphilly, commutes by train regularly to Cardiff.

He said when travelling to the capital to view an exhibition earlier this week, the train there was on time with plenty of free seats, but on the way home it was delayed, pretty full and "doesn't feel worth it".

"Pretty dreadful experience really - 22 minutes late, a packed train" he said.

"It doesn't feel like it's a service you can rely on at all, particularly in rush hour.

"I just can't understand how this kind of experience keeps happening.

"It seems to be the same trains, the same times that are delayed or cancelled.

"Surely if you know there's going to be issues the company should be fixing it, but I guess we'll never find out".

Conservatives shadow transport minister Natasha Asghar said she wanted ministers to address the "horrifying" experiences of her constituents.

"Quite frankly the reaction from my constituents has been horrifying. They are absolutely disgusted," she said.

"Many of them love to attend various sporting events that take place in Cardiff and over the past few weekends, whenever there has been a sporting event, my inbox has been inundated with people who are absolutely furious.

"Not only are they rammed into trains like sardines, but there is no sense of social distancing."