05 Sep 2018

In the coming months and years, we’ll be making a huge investment in our railways and with six weeks to go until Transport for Wales starts running the Wales and Borders rail service, we’re keen to update you on the exciting transformation. Preparations for the transfer are well underway and we are working with Arriva Trains Wales to ensure a seamless transition. Here are some of the changes you’ll see from Day 1.

New branding
You’ll start to see Transport for Wales’ branding appearing on staff uniforms, at stations and on some trains as well as on information leaflets and posters.

We’ll also be launching a new customer website and app on 15th October.

As the transformation continues you’ll also see the brand appearing on new trains.

Staff

While you’ll notice that staff uniforms will change on 15th October to incorporate the Transport for Wales brand, we also have plans to introduce a new staff uniform once we’ve consulted with staff.

Welsh Language

We’ll be enhancing Welsh language service provision and providing increased training support to staff who want to learn Welsh.

Stations

We have a massive programme of station investment planned and you’ll start to see the Transport for Wales brand appearing at stations.  We’ll also be deep cleaning our stations and we’ll start this programme in December 2018.

Trains

We plan to replace all trains by 2023.  In the meantime, we’ll be introducing some additional trains to improve services and you may also see some temporarily rebranded trains.

New Services

Passengers in North Wales are likely to be amongst the first to benefit from a number of new rail services currently being planned by Transport for Wales.

We’re working to introduce new services from May 2019 between Chester and Liverpool Lime Street and also extending two of these services to serve Wrexham.

The services between Chester and Liverpool Lime Street were originally intended to be introduced from December 2018, however due to rolling stock availability issues we’re now planning to introduce these and the extended services from May 2019.  We’re working with the industry to ensure that rolling stock is available and that the timetable can accommodate these extra services.

We’re also working with the industry to secure some additional Sunday services in North Wales as well as some early start weekday services in South Wales from December 2018.

The North Wales services include:

• Additional Sunday services between Wrexham General and Bidston.
• An additional service from Llandudno Junction to Chester.

The South Wales services include additional:

• Sunday services between Aberdare and Cardiff.
• Weekday early start services from Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff.
   
  We’ll confirm details of these services as soon as we can.