Wrexham to Bidston rail service slammed by committee

Today (March 28), the Wrexham Bidston Rail Users Association (WBRUA) Committee released a scathing statement highlighting ongoing issues with the rail service. 

They say the committee met on Friday (March 24) and 'unanimously agreed that something has to change as TfW appears incapable of delivering an acceptable service on the Wrexham-Bidston line'. 

The discussions come following recent disruption, which has seen the service cancelled while repair work is ongoing. 

Maintenance on class 175s was meant to come to a halt during the middle of March, however, that got extended to 'early April' and when TfW were approached for a further update on when the service would return, they could not provide one.

The WBRUA committee references issues that date back to 2018, which they say are still ongoing, including maintenance and 'staffing issues'. 

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A spokesperson for the association said: "Since it took over the Wrexham-Bidston service, TfW has consistently failed to provide accurate and up to date information and the ongoing unreliability of the Wrexham-Bidston service has resulted in many passengers questioning TfW’s ability to run the service. 

"The WBRUA is aware of one person who had to recently change employment because of the ongoing unreliability of the Wrexham-Bidston service.

"The WBRUA suggests that this situation could have been avoided with more effective management of its rolling stock assets by TfW. Unfortunately, this is yet another item on an increasing list of failures to deliver what was promised and expected."

While the maintenance on the 175s has been ongoing, a bus service has been in place as a rail replacement, which the WBRUA say has its flaws. 

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The statement added: "The rail replacement bus service for the Wrexham-Bidston line takes twice as long as the train. The ongoing lack of train service forces those who use it to find alternatives (in many cases, their cars) whilst undermining their confidence in rail and is almost certainly impacting on the local economy as well as worsening the congestion on our roads.

"TfW has refused to post rail replacement bus timetables at stations notwithstanding numerous requests from the WBRUA, and recent observations indicate that the buses are running with very few passengers on board and would-be passengers are still being found waiting on station platforms due to the lack of clear information."

"All the foregoing points to a complete failure of Senior Management at TfW. The WBRUA believes that the Welsh Government should instigate an independent review of TfW to determine where the root cause of the problems lie and what needs to be done to rectify the situation.

"In the meantime as a minimum, the Welsh Government should be demanding reassurances from TfW that it is exploring all options for returning regular passenger services to the Wrexham-Bidston line as soon as humanly possible."

Transport for Wales was approached for a comment.