Editing Cambrian Line (section)

==Performance==
[[File:Talsarnau railway station MMB 07 97303.jpg|thumb|A Network Rail Class 97 locomotive at Talsarnau railway station, 2009]]

With long sections of single line and limited passing points, minor disruptions on the Cambrian Line quickly lead to compound delays and partial cancellations. This, combined with short turnaround times at each end of the route, led to severe unpunctuality during much of the first decade of the 21st century. The extension of the service to Birmingham International in late 2008<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/7792091.stm |work=BBC News |title=Aber-London rail link may reopen |date=19 December 2008}}</ref> has helped address this by eliminating the tight turnarounds at the heavily congested Birmingham New Street station. Maintenance changes and additional padding in public timetables has also helped improve performance figures overall.

In Arriva Trains Wales' performance statistics, the Cambrian Line was routinely the worst-performing service group between 2003 and 2008. Since early 2009, recorded timekeeping has improved – a considerable achievement, considering that the route has been the testing ground for brand new signalling technology previously unused on the British railway network. 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
|+Cambrian Line performance comparison <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/Performance/ |title=Arriva Trains Wales Performance Statistics. Source |access-date=29 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226012605/http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/Performance/ |archive-date=26 February 2012 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>
! rowspan=2|Service Group !! colspan=2|Punctuality for the 12 months to
|-
! 13 October 2007 || 6 December 2014
|-bgcolor="#ffffdd;"
| Cambrian
| 88.2%
| 94.3%
|-
| [[Welsh Marches Line|Marches]]
| 93.7%
| 92.7%
|-
| Wales–England
| 95.8%
| 97.7%
|-
| South, West, Central Wales
| 94.0%
| 96.0%
|-
| [[Valley Lines]]
| 95.1%
| 95.5%
|-
| [[North Wales Coast Line|North Wales Inter Urban]]
| 97.7%
| 96.5%
|-
| North Wales Rural
| 92.3%
| 93.4%
|}