The work on TfW’s fleet of Class 158 long-distance trains comes as part of their £40 million refurbishment programme and is now complete

The refurbishment work was carried out at the Arriva TrainCare’s facility in Crewe and has been underway since the early part of 2020 and has seen the full fleet of 24 trains refurbished.

The trains operate through the Wales and Borders network and includes the Cambrian Line in Mid Wales alongside services to North and West Wales.

The first train moved back into service in February 2020 bringing improvements in facilities for customers such as USB charging points, re-covered seats, new carpets and new interior fittings.

The trains have now also been rebranded using Transport for Wales‘ (TfW’s) grey and red livery.

The work carried out on the trains will also bring benefits in reliability including improvements to the electrical, heating and Wheel Slide Protection (WSP) system and will allow trains to be available more frequently for service.

TfW’s £40m refurbishment programme has also seen refreshment work carried out on Class 175, 150 and 153 trains. An investment of more than £800 million is also being invested by TfW on a brand new fleet of trains which are set to come into service throughout the Wales and Borders network later in 2022.

Jerry Howells, TfW’s Head of Asset Management, said:

“It’s fantastic to be able to deliver these improvements for customers, which they rightly expect to see on a modern railway network. We know being able to travel in comfort and charge devices on the go are incredibly important to our customers, whether they are travelling for 20 minutes or four hours, for business or pleasure.”

Neil Morrey, TfW’s Refurbishment Project Manager, said:

“While we are building brand new trains, they take time to build and we want our customers to have a comfortable experience as soon as possible. We’re particularly proud to have delivered this work 102 days ahead of schedule and under budget.”