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Arriva Trains Wales apologises for carriage shortage

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Arriva Trains Wales said 'unrelated events' had led to a shortage of carriages on some of its services

Leaves on the line, a train hitting a tree and freight services breaking down on passenger routes have led Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) to apologise for the "frustration" caused to its customers.

The train operator published a note on its website explaining that the problems in October meant some services ran with fewer carriages than normal. It acknowledged staff reports of "passenger experiences" on trains and comments made by passengers on Twitter.

ATW said an action plan was in place. It said: "Some of these issues have been caused by freight trains breaking down on our Cardiff to Manchester/Holyhead routes. This extensive disruption has led to us needing to re-start services with another train to avoid them being completely cancelled. The only way we can do this is by taking capacity from other local services, which then reduces the overall number of carriages allocated to each service. We have also had several services affected by low rail adhesion, which is caused by the leaf fall season when leaves are crushed onto the railhead making them slippery."

The note added that the majority of trains affected by leaves operate on ATW's busiest routes around Cardiff and the valleys, and warned that breaking on slippery tracks can damage wheels with repairs further affecting services. Other problems the firm said it has faced include urgent maintenance on two trains used on longer distance routes - including one that struck a tree on the line. Both these trains would be back on the rails on Monday, the firm said.

ATW said: "We are working hard on finding ways to reduce instances of us being unable to provide the required number of trains for service each day."