Arriva Trains Wales has admitted that a “faulty cable” was to blame for a fire on a busy commuter train last year, although questions remain over the incident.
The company only disclosed the general cause of the fire after pressure from Caerphilly Observer and Caerphilly AM Hefin David.
Fire crews from Caerphilly, Whitchurch, Pontypridd and Cardiff were called to Caerphilly station on October 4 last year when a Bargoed-bound train from Cardiff caught alight at around 5.25pm.
All passengers were evacuated without injury and the fire was eventually put out, although major disruption to services was caused.
In the aftermath of the emergency, operator Arriva Trains Wales launched an internal investigation, which, according to the company, has been completed.
Despite several requests from this newspaper for the report to be made public, the company has not disclosed full details of the incident.
Initially the company also refused to state the cause of the fire.
In its first statement it said: “We have completed an internal report following an investigation into the incident and have implemented the recommendations.
“The report is for internal use only. We can confirm that this issue was an isolated one and the rest of the fleet was not affected by the same issue.”
But after further pressure from Caerphilly Observer and AM Dr David, who both cited public safety concerns, it admitted the fire was down to a cable overheating.
In a fresh statement, a spokesman for Arriva Trains Wales said: “This incident was due to a faulty cable on the train which overheated.
“We have reviewed our inspection process as a result of the incident in order to reduce the risk of this happening again.
“Safety remains our number one priority and will ensure that we reduce the risk of this type of incident as far as reasonably practicable.”
Dr David said he is now waiting for a detailed response from the company and said: “Following enquiries, I expect Arriva to provide a more detailed response or alternatively explain thoroughly why it would not be in the public interest to do so.”
Industry safety watchdog the Rail Accident Investigation Branch has also requested a copy of the report, although at time of press, the public body has yet to receive it.
Passengers on the train that day described how the carriage quickly filled with smoke and there was also an eyewitness that claimed there was smoke coming from the train as it left Queen Street station.
Despite requests, the company has not commented over whether or not their investigation had confirmed this.
In recent months Arriva Trains Wales has come under greater public scrutiny because of passenger overcrowding and the general dirty appearance of its ageing rolling stock. Company bosses admitted last year that they used some of the oldest trains in the UK, but were unable to lease more to meet rising passenger demand.
However, they have also recently pledged to spend around £430,000 stripping the interiors of its trains and giving them a deep industrial clean.
The company has been named as one of four preferred bidders for the new Wales and Borders service franchise, which will run from 2018 and include the new South Wales Metro scheme.
Interesting that Arriva is reluctant to discuss the “faulty cable” and a little pointless. The cable itself is highly unlikely to be faulty, unless damaged, as cable of all kinds is extremely reliable in normal use. I have seen cables, sometimes buried underground, that are in use today more than 100 years after they were first laid.
There are three main causes of fire originating from cables, overloading of the cable because of the fitting of a circuit breaker of too large a tripping current for the cable it supplies, damage of the cable along its run or poor terminations at the cable end – loose connections heat up.
Arriva have not given much away here, they may have well said the fire was down to “a faulty train.” I wonder what the secrecy is about?