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Virgin drops rail link bid
Thursday 9th April 2009, 3:33PM BST.
Virgin Trains today announced it has dropped controversial plans to introduce a new direct rail service from Shropshire to London.
The company had hoped to bring in a twice daily service of 125mph tilting trains running between Shrewsbury, Wellington and Euston. But the proposals were strongly opposed by rival operator Wrexham & Shropshire (WSMR).
The company, which already runs services from Shropshire to London Marylebone, claimed it could be forced out of business by its subsidised and much larger rival.
And today Virgin backed down – claiming there were not enough passengers to justify more Shropshire-London trains.
In a statement, the company said: “Virgin Trains has today confirmed it will not proceed with its plans to introduce a direct train service from Shrewsbury to London Euston.
“Stakeholders were informed in March this year that this was an initial proposal and needed further investigation before Virgin Trains would seek approval from the Rail Regulator.
“After several months detailed analysis on the proposal there is not a compelling case to justify additional trains, as evidenced by WSMR’s recent withdrawal of part of its service.
“Virgin Trains was surprised at claims that we would force WSMR out of business, and this certainly was not our intention.
“We hope that WSMR and its key backer – Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned German railway – will now commit long term to providing their service to Shropshire, despite recent reductions in the service.
“Virgin Trains will continue to concentrate on the many parts of the country where there is clear demand for our expanded services.”
Councillor Gary Davies, who campaigned to get a direct rail service from Wellington, today said he was “over the moon” that Virgin had pulled out.
“As somebody who is very concerned about Wellington, I hope this will give Wrexham & Shropshire even more confidence in their service.”
Wrexham & Shropshire has already reduced its services from the county due to the low passengers numbers. It was feared that a rival service would threaten the company even further.
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I don’t believe it. Sense prevails.
WSMR is a great service with great staff, low costs and an excellent buffet service.
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Good news – long live WSMR!!
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It IS good news – but why the sudden about-face from Virgin on this issue???
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one minute there are 3 operators in 6 months time there will be none.
Just like the buses!
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Excellent news. I suspect it is more due to the fact they have’nt actually got enough ‘Voyager’ units to cover the additional turns. Either that or the ORR have more or less told them where to get off!!! With all this out of the way lets hope WSMR & their parent companies Deutshe Bahn (DB) & Renaissance Trains can now get on and further develop their product in time for the next major timetable change in December 2009.
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sponging off the tax payer these railways must be stopped, we want more roads and cheaper petrol, only the conservatives are committed to more road building, the greeny lefty loony liberals in power keep pouring our taxes into trains but it is a waste, get on an dual the a49 to Ludlow, tarmac the railways and use them for cars i say
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Keep up the good service WSMR.The mention of the 35 million subsidy or the fact that they could not match the food or the service may have somthing to do with the rethink.
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Good, now Government should subsidise WSMR so it can capture the market for: the Disabled’s Scooters, wheelchairs, prams, bicycles, golf buggies and fat people and the aged! They need to fit-out their trains with, level entries or folding ramps for the Guards.
Again I say “visit Brisbane Australia” to find out how.
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Tory boy – you’ve been told this before in these columns, (not by me) and apparently you may not read follow-up comments, but here goes, anyway….the WSMR is an open access operator, therefore has NO public subsidy, and so they are not, as you put it, “sponging off the tax payer”. Incidentally, you may wish to acquaint yourself with the peak oil prognosis. The days of happy, carefree motoring with cheap petrol are rapidly drawing to a close. Best enjoy them whilst you can.
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such a shame for the economy and the environmnet, we need all the trains we can get in shropshire tis so rural, we need something as alternatives to driving all the time
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Not quite sure what to make of ‘Tory Boy’ and his ideas about ‘Tarmacing the Railways’.
If you close lets say ALL the Routes in Shropshire apart from putting more people on Britains roads how do you transport between 2,000 & 4,000 tonnes of steel coil a day between South Wales & Dee Marsh/Ellsmere Port?
The Route from Newport is used apart from all the passenger services to transport coal from Bristol Porbty Docks to Rugeley & Fiddlers Ferry Power Stations with up to 5 1,800 ton trains a day.
The Wolves to Shrewsbury Route which also sees 2 of the 5 Rugeley Coal trains a day on top of the passenger services also supplies IronBridge P.S. with up to 6 1,800 ton coal trains a day.
The Shrewsbury to Chester route which apart from supplying the Dee Marsh with the afformentioned Steel trains also supplies Kronospan at Chirk with 2 1,000 ton timber trains a day from Scotland.
What does ‘Tory Boy’ suggest we do with all this traffic – put it on the roads??
Taking into account that double track main lines like those we have in Shropshire are the same width as a normal single carriageway ‘A’ road and that 4 track main lines like we have else were in the UK are the same width as a normal dual carriageway not only would you have to tarmac them, you would have to make them wider too!
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WHAT IS THIS MAN ON!
TARMAC ALL THE RAILWAY LINES,I DON`T THINK SO.
WE NEED MORE TRAINS.
I TRAVEL WITH ME TWO SONS MOST WEEKENDS ON THE RAILWAY NETWORK.
WELL DONE WSMR KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
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surely we should be mourning the loss of an improvement in green transport that would have really put our town on the map? W&S provide a slow service to the edge of london, the pendilino (tilting) trains could do this journey in only a couple of hours, that would put shrewsbuiry on the map as a place to do business, not an old deisel line, stopping at all the villages and taking 3 1/2 hrs to get to the outskirts of london
im glad W&S are in business but i wish we had more trains and faster trains and more modern trains and im sad virgin have pulled out of what would have been a very welcome proposal
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Marylebone is not on ‘the edge of London’ Dan! try living there like I did as a youngster _ I used to wish it was…
In fact it’s just down the road from Euston, mid-way between Euston and Paddington Stations.
Hope this helps.
John.
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