Which European companies will run Wales' rail services for over 10 years?

France’s Keolis and Spanish Amey have teamed up and won the £5bn contract to run Wales’ rail services for the next 15 years.

The Keolis/Amey bid succeeded over a competitive offer from Hong Kong’s MTR commuter railways.

Arriva - the transport company which has run the Wales and Borders franchise for the last 15 years - pulled out in December 2017. An official announcement of the winner is due today (May 23).

France’s Keolis is the country’s largest private sector public transport operator, while Amey has been bought by Spanish infrastructure firm, Ferrovial after suffering collapse over a decade ago, much like Carillion.

Ferrovial is the manager and main shareholder of London’s Heathrow Airport.

The new franchise will come into effect from this October, replacing the one run by Arriva Trains Wales for the last 15 years.

Since Arriva started running the franchise, passenger journeys have risen from 18m in 2003 to more than 30m a year in 2017, but the contract with Arriva was based on zero usage growth.

This has meant they have been stuck with the same number of trains since 2003, leading to overcrowding and carriages in need of a ‘pick-me-up’.

The 15-year contract is valued to be around £5bn.

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