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Transport minister to see county trains
Thursday 30th October 2008, 11:45AM GMT.
New Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon is to visit Shropshire to witness the passenger misery an MP claims commuters travelling between Shrewsbury and Birmingham have to put up with.
Mr Hoon agreed to join Mark Pritchard on a morning train between Telford and Birmingham after the Wrekin MP told him “people are crushed into carriages like cattle”.
- Most train services between Shrewsbury and Birmingham are operated by Arriva Trains Wales and London Midland.
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Don’t expect Hoon to actually DO anything about it though. He’ll blame the rail companies. Or increasing passenger levels. Or anybody apart from Government transport policy.
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lest we forget the idiots who privatised the railways. Who were they again?
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I agree with Jeepers. My problem isn’t so much that the trains are jam packed, although generally they are. But the amount of delays and cancellations there always are. The trains are 97% of the time delayed. I always have to make sure i am at Telford station to get the train before the train i should get, because they are delayed which causes me to miss connections at Birmingham or end up there over an hour early. Something really needs to be done about it. I am very unimpressed at their time keeping records and now find it no surprise when i turn up and the train is delayed.
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No doubt they will throwin the recession and the fact that there will be less people with jobs so less need for new trains….
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I hope they put him on the correct early morning train, the ones, which I know from experience, carry a lot of passengers and not the after 09.00hrs service. Yes, people are carried at times like cattle
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It was like that in 1990, so 18 years on do you think that anything will change? In fact that was the year that the decreased the number of carriages to two.
Of course, up here we are not as important as they are in London.
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Maybe he can see that several platforms along the Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton line need extending to enable larger trains get all carriages on. Also although the train companies have reduced the number of tickets available they have increased the restrictions on travelling i.e. on some journeys you cannot travel between the hours of 3-30pm and 6-15pm! And maybe get London Midland to reduce the number of fare dodgers between Shifnal, Telford and Wellington. What has happened to the increase in track speed from 70mph to 90mph?
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He should have been on the 7:56 from Telford Central yesterday. It was totally rammed. The previous train was cancelled in Wolverhampton so there were 2 trains worth of people crammed into a train that is never long enough anyway.
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The new Wrexham and Shrewsbury train goes through Birmingham New Street without stopping and also Wolverhampton This is due to Mr Branson who does not like the competition ? So if Mr Hoon wishes to help Shropshire commuters he must put a stop to this ridiculous situation.
This train will soon take much less time to reach London and therefore many more people will use it.
It is a great train and service.
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I visited my old home town of Shrewsbury in 2007.
Being disabled I had use of a ‘mobility scooter’.
I was amazed to find neither Trains or Buses had facilities for these. Even walking people have to climb 3 steps into trains. WAKE UP BRITAIN, the Disabled Olympics are heading your way. In Australia I can drive my ‘Mobo” onto Trains, Ferries and some Buses.
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I hope he saw Thomas and James and Percy as well
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if geoff hoon wants to see how a real railway runs i suggest he travels from bridgnorth to kidderminster and he would enjoy a pint at the pubs on both stations
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nh, same party that brought dr beeching and that road builder ernie marples (tory transport minister) together what a shambles.
wake me up at crewe someone
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this is the same loon hoon who invaded iraq, he knows nothing, get rid of him, the trains were fine when maggie ran things, look what labour have done, more tax, slower trains, and economic ruin, we are all ruined by the socialist do gooders
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I was asked last year if I would like to go to the food and drink show at the NEC, and that we would all go on the train together from Wellington, so we could sample all the “drinks” at the show, and not risk driving back.
I haven’t used the trains for quite some time, and I was so DISGUSTED at the overcrowding, and DISGRACEFUL attitude of the station staff as they “herded” us onto a totally overcrowded 2 carriage train, that I vowed NEVER to use a train again.
The next time I went to the NEC, which was for the Music show, I drove there, and completed the journey (from Bridgnorth) in half the time, and in comfort. – and that’s even with BAD roads (see thread on: “lights on emstrey island” )
We really do live in a Second Class society in these days!
If this is the standard of public travel that people have to use day in day out,then I feel very sorry for those having to use it.
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