| £200m taxpayer-funded trains sit barely used for three years Posted by JohnM at 09:02, 5th November 2026 |     |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv62kwg0k038o
A new fleet of publicly funded trains that cost more than £200m still remain mostly unused more than three years after the first one was delivered.
They were initially promised to be fully up and running by 2022 but Transport for Wales' (TfW) boss has said he expects the tram-trains will be in full service by the end of 2027
Data obtained by the BBC reveals that less than half of the 36 fleet - what TfW call the "final piece" in their £2bn South Wales Metro project - have passed rigorous statutory testing.
TfW chief executive James Price said he wants trains that work "100% well, 100% of the time" before putting them into full service.
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They were initially promised to be fully up and running by 2022 but Transport for Wales' (TfW) boss has said he expects the tram-trains will be in full service by the end of 2027
Data obtained by the BBC reveals that less than half of the 36 fleet - what TfW call the "final piece" in their £2bn South Wales Metro project - have passed rigorous statutory testing.
TfW chief executive James Price said he wants trains that work "100% well, 100% of the time" before putting them into full service.
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(Apologies if there's an existing thread on this, please move as appropriate.)
| Re: £200m taxpayer-funded trains sit barely used for three years Posted by IndustryInsider at 11:07, 5th November 2026 | |
I popped down to South Wales to see and travel on some of them last week.
Pretty impressive for a tram-train. I feared a noticeable drop in quality and ambience from the 231/756s, but they felt pretty similar though without a toilet of course.
Given the amount of untried technology on them I think a delay into service is much more understandable than, say the 701s on SWR.
When fully in use, and with the resultant improvements in frequency and journey times, the Valley Lines will have come full circle and have a network many will envy, and a huge improvement on the Pacers and Sprinters of the previous generation.
