What discussions has the Minister had with Transport for Wales regarding making improvements to the service reliability, standard and number of carriages on the Cardiff-Manchester route?
I have regular meetings with Transport for Wales (TfW) regarding the performance of their services, including on the Cardiff to Manchester route.
TfW have experienced some challenges with services on this route recently caused by a combination of infrastructure faults and the reliability of the class 175 fleet currently used on these services. TfW will be introducing additional Mk4 carriage sets on the Cardiff to Manchester route later this year. This will provide an increase in capacity and improvements in passenger comfort and facilities compared to the trains they will replace. The remaining class 175 trains will be replaced by brand new CAF trains in 2023, the first of these brand new trains has now begun service in North Wales.