Arriva opens new £3m train care facility

A new purpose-built Arriva Trains Wales traincare facility at Machynlleth was officially opened by David Martin,chief executive of Arriva plc, on 13 August.

The facility will create 10 new jobs inaddition to an existing 14 positions and has been specially builtto service Arriva Trains Wales’ entire fleet of Class 158Units, which serve the Cambrian routes and other lines across Walesand the English borders. The dedicated team at Machynllethwill be responsible for ensuring that this fleet is maintained tothe highest standards of reliability, cleanliness andcomfort.

Arriva Trains Wales has invested £3million in the new facility which will have state-of-the-artcleaning and maintenance equipment. These facilities includetwo full length servicing pits complete with full garage servicesas well as exterior washing facilities, purpose built cleaningplatforms and advanced fuelling facilities.

A key feature of the facility is itsenvironmental features which include awater harvester, solar panels, a wind turbine and automaticlighting that dims when there is enough daylight.

David Martin, chief executive of Arriva plcsaid: “This is a significant investment by Arriva whichdemonstrates the company’s commitment to further improvingthe reliability and standards of our rail services throughout Walesand the Border counties. This investment is over and above thecommitments originally made by Arriva when we took over the Walesand Borders Franchise in 2003.”

Arriva Trains Wales managing director BobHolland said: “This is a further major investment by Arrivain Wales. Until now only nightly routine servicing has been carriedout at Machynlleth. This investment will allow full servicingof all units used on the Cambrian lines at Machynlleth by adedicated team. Previously they had to go toCardiff.”

Construction work began on November 2006 and was completed August 2007.