Bosses at a rail franchise due to end in October have thanked their customers and claimed they have "well and truly defied all expectations" during their time running the service.

Next month Arriva Trains Wales will hand over control of the Wales and Borders railway network to Keolis-Amey, who won a Welsh Government bidding process to run the services earlier this year.

The rail company have been running services in Wales for fifteen years after taking over the Wales and Borders network in 2003.

Complaints from passengers about ageing rolling stock and overcrowding have dogged the company, although passenger numbers on the lines have nearly doubled from 18bn in 2003 when Arriva Trains Wales took over the contract to around 33.5bn.

At a launch event at Pontypridd on Friday, September 7, Arriva Group CEO Manfred Rudhart joined Assembly Member Mick Antoniw Town Mayor Cllr Linda Davies and Arriva Trains Wales MD Tom Joyner to say "Diolch" to customers.

During that time the company say more than 400 million customer journeys have been made on 4.5 million passenger services.

Managing Director Tom Joyner said: "We are proud that we have well and truly defied all expectations, growing customer journeys from 18 million to 33 million.

"We’ve overseen major investment in stations and played our part in some of the world’s biggest sporting events.

"There have been mistakes along the way and difficult situations, but we’ve come through them and come out stronger as a result and we are proud to be leaving the Wales and Borders network in a far stronger position than when we started in 2003. Our new Welsh language scholarship shows we are proud to continue our investment in people right up to the end of our franchise."

In May of this year, a £5bn joint-bid to run the Wales and Borders network from France's Keolis and Spanish-owned Amey triumphed over a rival offer from Hong Kong's MTR commuter railways.

The new franchise will come into effect from October 14. Bosses at the new company say all 2,200 ATW staff will be able to transfer and terms and conditions will be protected.