ONE OF the key rail routes between Wales and England has seen 60,000 extra passenger journeys made and a 27% increase in trains arriving on time over the last year.

Transport for Wales has revealed new figures for the Wrexham to Bidston rail route showing that between January and July this year, 197,047 journeys were made on the line.

For the same period in 2023 the figure was 138,743.

And in July 2023, just 48.4% of trains arrived within three minutes of schedule. This July that figure stood at 87.7%.

Cabinet Secretary for Transport & North Wales, Ken Skates said: "I am delighted that after all the hard work passengers are now beginning to see a significant improvement to this important service.”

Jeremy Williams, who was appointed as a dedicated rail route officer for the line last year to help improve performance said customers were “finally getting the service they deserved”.

He said: “Last year things simply weren’t good enough. So we put a real focus on the line looking at our timetable, the trains we were using on the line, some of the fleet issues and various other factors.

“We worked closely with rail user groups to understand the needs of customers too.

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“The new timetable in December 2023 meant we were running more trains on the line but were also creating more time to turn the trains around.

"It’s drastically improved performance and I think customers are finally getting the service they deserve, with the numbers traveling reflecting that.”

July saw 27,936 journeys made on the line, the highest number in a single month since TfW took over running the services in 2018.

The line is now operated by a mixture of Class 230 and Class 197 trains.