Since Transport for Wales introduced a new timetable on the Wrexham to Bidston line last December, there are more train services each day than ever before.

The punctuality of services on the line has also increased.

In the first 12 weeks of this year, more than 80% of trains arrived at their destinations either on time or within three minutes of their scheduled time of arrival.

That is a great increase from last year when fewer than half of all services arrived within three minutes of their scheduled arrival time.

The 27-mile-long line from Wrexham in North Wales to Bidston on the Wirral has 15 stations.

It is also marketed as the Borderlands line and connects with services on other lines at Wrexham General, Shotton, and Bidston, as well as local bus services.

A new timetable introduced last December increased the frequency of services from one train per hour to one every 45 minutes.

That gave an overall increase of eight extra trains per day – four in each direction. The improved timetable also provided more opportunities to recover time during the journey and longer turnaround times at each end, making the service more resilient and liable to fewer cancellations.

Some of last year’s problems were caused by the poor reliability of the new Class 230s introduced to operate on the line.

These are bi-mode battery-electric diesel units, and when first introduced, they had reliability issues which engineers have been working hard in the background to address.

A funded plan to improve reliability is to be implemented later this year. In the meantime, to minimise problems, Transport for Wales will use its new Class 197 trains on Borderlands line services alongside the Class 230s.

It’s excellent news to see how these targeted changes are making a real difference to customers journeys.

Our customers and stakeholders have been clear in what they want: a regular and reliable service that works for them.

Quite simply, what we were delivering last year was not good enough. So, we appointed a dedicated route officer for the line to look at the issues we were facing.

Colin Lea, Planning and Performance Director at Transport for Wales

This is great news. We appreciate this has been frustrating for passengers, but I am pleased that after all the hard work we are clearly beginning to see a significant improvement to this important service.

It’s been a very encouraging first three months, we will continue to work closely with our partners to keep a close eye on performance, so we can make things better for customers as the investments in new trains come on stream.

Ken Skates, The Cabinet Secretary for North Wales and Transport