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Why new London rail service now?
Monday 14th September 2009, 7:36AM BST.
Letter: I read with interest your article in the Shropshire Star (5 September) where Arriva Trains are planning to introduce two direct trains per day to London from Aberystwyth to London, via Shropshire.
This is one of those situations where reading between the lines is vital.
Don’t get me wrong, more direct trains to London would be very welcome, provided the motives of the train operator are to be welcomed.
It’s nice to see that Arriva have “received overwhelming support from stakeholders”. But where was this support before Wrexham and Shropshire introduced their successful service? If Arriva propose new services at different times to Wrexham and Shropshire, great.
But I suspect their timetable and pricing, in the short term at least, may well be constructed to attract passengers off the existing service on to theirs.
After all, in the world of bus transport, Arriva, and the other major bus companies, are notorious for not fighting each other, preferring instead to bully any small local operator who dares to tread on their toes. That is why they have no real competition in Shropshire.
Arriva have also shown before that they are not averse to plundering the success of others. Let’s hope that this is not to be the fate of Wrexham and Shropshire, who should be applauded and supported for what they have done.
Ewen MacLeod
Wellington
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Wrexham do a wonderful job ….more straight through trains would be a bonus, but when/where can we have some MORE PARKING ?
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I would not use Arriva Trains to London even if they were £1 return. Most likely the train will be cancelled or delayed by 7 hours. Wrexham and Shropshire are great, and have good times – we don’t need Arriva ruining it. They are not reliable enough. Full stop.
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Arriva ought to buck their ideas up on their existing services first. The trains are dirty, smelly and uncomfortable, and I would much rather sit on a W&S train when I go to London.
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Might it be better if Arriva looked for different niche markets?
Services to Manchester or York, for example? Or would they rather steal the bread from someone else? Pity.
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I am very grateful for the service that W&S provides – gives me a much more convenient travel to london and birmingham international, great prices, fantastic staff, convenient arrival times.
They do need to feel a bit of the heat of competition though – aircon not working on all carriages, toilets often out of order, long journey times, trains packed back on fridays with not enough space, some seats very uncomfortable (broken?), no wifi.
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Manchester?? Have you not been to the station and seen trains departing for Manchester Piccadilly every hour between 06:30 and 22:00??
The London service is aimed at passengers in Mid and West Wales so I can’t see how this treads on WSMR’s toes. Nobody ever mentioned WSMR treading on Arriva’s toes between Wrexham and Wolverhampton when they started operating. Arriva will probably extend 2 of their current services through to London from Birmingham International and will be timed to meet up with existing Aberystwyth trains at Birmingham International on the return.
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I must agree with other comments about Arriva services on the Shrewsbury to Birmingham route. Their trains are dirty, uncomfortable for long journeys and often unreliable. Their focus should be on getting their own services in order. Having used Wxm & Shrop to London they are now settling down to be a good service provider and very customer focussed and the old inter-city carriages have an old world charm about them with lots of space. But passenger volumes suggests there is not room for two viable services. Keep out of this please Arriva.
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why should arriva get all the routes to themselves.we have already got a great trains to london with Wrexham and shropshire railways. the staff where the best. i would not like to sit on a dmu a (class 158) for 3 and half hours.
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