'Value-for-money' fears over £8m 'spare' train drivers bill

TRANSPORT for Wales spends more than £8m a year on an excess wage bill for dozens of “spare” train drivers and conductors, the Senedd has heard.

- JOE WOODS

Rhys ab Owen, who sits as an independent Senedd member, expressed concerns about value for money after being contacted by a Transport for Wales (TfW) train driver.

He told the Senedd: “My office undertook some freedom of information requests with Transport for Wales in relation to spare drivers and driving patterns.

“For the time period requested, TfW, by their own figures, had 89 drivers and 70 conductors more than is needed to run the service, and in excess of the established posts. This equates to an excess wage bill per annum of over £8m.”

Mr ab Owen recognised the need for spare drivers to minimise cancellations or delays, saying: “They are utilised to ensure services run and to minimise cancellations and delays. A spare driver works a shift but is not allocated to a route that day.

“In fact, they just sit in the office and they wait for a call. More often than not, that call does not come. They're on standby in a depot in case a scheduled driver cannot drive that route.”

The former barrister told the debating chamber, known as the Siambr, that TfW has an average of 11 spare drivers and six spare conductors each day.