Blog: A sad end to Wrexham & Shropshire’s brave try
Thursday 27th January 2011, 9:16AM GMT.
Blog: The Wrexham, Shropshire, and Marylebone Railway had a hard working, committed, management team who provided Shropshire with its only direct rail link to London.
Which lost £2.8 million last year.
Staff were very friendly and helpful. The service was as good as could be found on any train anywhere in the world. It topped virtually every customer satisfaction survey.
And still lost £2.8 million last year.
Management played their part in our local community, getting involved in many events and supporting projects.
It didn’t prevent last year’s £2.8 million loss.
Tomorrow the service stops, after almost three years.
What did they have to do to make it succeed?
It deserved to succeed. Everything was done to help it succeed. The fares were, as train fares go, cheap.
There were many people, this newspaper among them, who campaigned for the return of Shropshire’s direct rail link to London.
But as a commercial venture it naturally had to be just that – commercial.
The hard truth of the matter is that not enough Salopians were using it to make it viable.
Fine words and entreaties are no substitute for bums on train seats.
This is the second time a revived direct rail link has come, run for a few years, and then gone.
We are sorry to see the loss of the latest service, and the loss of 55 jobs into the bargain.
Thank you to the WSMR for giving it a go.
Sadly, doing a first class job still wasn’t enough.
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I am sad. I travelled on this route a couple of times for leisure from London to Wrexham and Shrewsbury. A delightful service. Speed was its enemy, not quality. It took too long for business users. The trains could go 125mph, but the track wouldn’t let them go much over 75.
Sometimes comercial considerations are not enough.
But yes, Thank you for giving it a good go. Although this didn’t succeed, I think most of the factors for its failure were not of their making.
Anyone wishing to run a railway service could and should learn a lot from the approach of this venture.
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We too used this service as a family and loved it. I think they were never able to compete properly because of the routes made available to them, and thus the journey times. What a sad day for rail travel.
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I used this service earlier this week, and will miss the customer service and low prices given by this company. By buying advance single tickets I always paid either £10 or £14 for a single journey. Virgin aways tried to compete with this by offering singles to Euston for aroung £10 too. I notice, however, that the cheapest singles to Euston now appear to be around £27.
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This is what happens when a route can’t make a good profit to line greedy shareholders pockets.We now see the folly of the huge mistake by the Tories in selling off the railways,it’s the passengers that have to suffer every time,all becuase the Tories hated any form of state ownership.
Enough is enough time to take the railways back in to state ownership,bring back British Rail.In truth this will never happen as too many Tories are shareholders of these private rail companies.
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The best breakfast on the rails no discrimination for vegetarians. Toast & Marmalade even brought to the table!!!!
What a loss I traveled down to see my daughter regularly in style & comfort.
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What a real shame! The service was great, staff always friendly and happy to chat, not like the sterile environment of most other train companies.
I travelled on the service last year with a broken leg and the staff were amazing, paying many visits to the bar for me and it wasn’t a bother at all.
The only down side was that the service was too slow, but how can they compete with Virgin etc for routes on the faster tracks.
They will be missed as you very rarely get any hint of customer service these days.
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Very sorry to hear that this service has come to a end. We travelled to Shrewsbury from Marlebone in September and it was a most plesant experience with lovely staff.
This is what happens on a private railway because public service does not exist and an allout pursuit of profits. Privitisation of our railways was a great folly and god save us.
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