Arriva Trains Wales 158s - Poor Condition

[WestCoast]

I haven't traveled on a ATW 158 for a year or so, and after a trip between Shrewsbury - Chester with a 158 I won't be in a great hurry to travel again on one.

I know they are supposed to be refurbished in the (relatvely) near future, but why has ATW let them get so bad? They are operating on long distance services, they should be presentable.

They are absolutely fifthly, inside and out. Each ATW 158 I saw had extremely dirty windows, hard to see through! Inside the tables were stained and the seating and carpets looked dirty. The toilet was in a poor condition, it had a very dirty floor. The journey was cramped due to it only being a 2-car unit and the airline seating has hardly any legroom

They look drab and depressing, whoever "refurbished" them before, made them worse..:roll:

There is NO excuse for ATW not cleaning them, I mean Central Trains 158s used to look remotely clean. Northern Rail always kept its unrefurbished 158s in a decent state when it had them, why can't ATW?

 

[387star]

Arriva have a habit of letting there trains get into a diabolical state but when Wales and borders ran them they were no better

 

[RPM]

The ATW frachise was let on a very tight budget with no allowance for refurbing the 158s. The funds for doing so were only released well into the life of the franchise so the interiors, last refurbished by Wales & West, have had to soldier on, albeit with new seat covers on some of the fleet. That said, they could certainly do more to keep them clean.

 

[Pacerpilot]

I always assumed it was the passengers that make the saloons so dirty...

 

[WestCoast]

I always assumed it was the passengers that make the saloons so dirty...

They do make the interiors dirty but that is no reason for Arriva not to clean them often. Other TOCs have much cleaner rolling stock, despite an intense level of passengers.

 

[Rhydgaled]

When I traveled on ATW 158s I found the interior quite alright (I avoid train toilets though, so they could have been awful for all I know). Sadly when I see the ATW 158s that remain in the once smart silver and blue Alphaline livery at Aberystwyth they are often filthy and no-longer smart at all. (The removal of the W&W logos has reduced their smart-ness also).

That said, back when I made my trip they were actually washing one of the silver ones at the Machynlleth depot, it looked smart then.

 

[BrummyBoy]

Ive travelled on them a couple of times and found them to be pleasently ok, not the cleanest but acceptable, however the toilets are far from perfect.

 

[Arriva158]

They do pretty well considering how much they do per day on average, with turn rounds of about 10 minutes tops at each destination especially Aberystwyth, it gets 8 minutes there to get moving, some of them do look pretty horrific in parts but they're well used, the last one I had was 158822 in the new livery which was absolutely fine on the inside but 830 which was on the front could have done with a clean but apparently the longest a 158 will go without a wash/thorough clean is 36 hours so they can either get to Cardiff/Holyhead or Machynlleth.

 

[TDK]

They do pretty well considering how much they do per day on average, with turn rounds of about 10 minutes tops at each destination especially Aberystwyth, it gets 8 minutes there to get moving, some of them do look pretty horrific in parts but they're well used, the last one I had was 158822 in the new livery which was absolutely fine on the inside but 830 which was on the front could have done with a clean but apparently the longest a 158 will go without a wash/thorough clean is 36 hours so they can either get to Cardiff/Holyhead or Machynlleth.

The ATW fleet is discusting, the 158's and most of the 175's are awful in comparison with other TOC's trains. I use ATW quite frequently and they are by far the worst I have travelled on. Carpets thread bare, seats dirty, not looking like they have had a deep clean for a decade and they smell. There is no excuse for this and the only thing that would get them to refurbish the trains is to get another company that has direct conpetetion with them on their lines and we all know this isn't haow the railway works. Unfortunately they may not have the money but if they were audited and the amount of money wased over the last 2 years was taken into account the fleet could have all been refurbed.

 

[185]

They are in an utterly disgusting state. Even with minimal maintenance, the Northern Spirit 158s which were refurbished long before the ATW ones, were in good condition. I think it's more like lack of resources than funding - ATW just don't want to spend money on proper maintenance & traincare staffing levels.

 

[Failed Unit]

I went to aberystwyth about 4 years ago and the unit was a disgrace back then, so god help the ATW passengers if they haven't yet even had a deep clean. People complain about micro management but the 158 fleet shows why it is needed. If a minimum standard of rolling is defined I am sure that fleet would be in it. Even the tidy up the Scotrail units (ex-Wessex) have had has mad them more presentable.