Firm on track to improve timetable
Friday 9th October 2009, 11:30AM BST.
A timetable for Shropshire’s direct rail link to London could be improved even further in December bosses said as they introduced their latest changes to improve journeys for passengers.
Wrexham & Shropshire launched its modified weekday timetable this week providing passengers with more convenient train times which it says allows people time to have a full day out in the capital.
But they said there was still scope for improvement with work already under way to introduce another timetable in December.
The latest timetable comes after negotiations with other train operators, work with Network Rail to improve line speeds and even fitting monitoring devices to embankments to assess the impact of different types of trains.
The rail firm said the timetable was designed to make journeys even easier for people travelling to and from London Marylebone.
Thomas Ableman, Wrexham & Shropshire’s marketing director, said: “We’ve listened to what our passengers have to say and have made a real effort to make changes to the timetable that will have a real impact.
“For those travelling back home after a day’s business in London, the new timetable now includes a rush-hour train that gets you home at a more reasonable hour.
“Similarly, the 07.23 from Marylebone will make our region much more accessible from London and prove a boom for both businesses and the tourist sector.”
Mr Ableman said although Wrexham & Shropshire was adding more trains at peak times and was retaining its “unique” policy of being the only train company in Britain not to charge peak fares.
Its maximum standard class fare from Shrewsbury or Telford to London is £40 return.
He added: “In line with Wrexham & Shropshire’s ethos of continuous improvement, work is already under way to look at possible timetable changes to benefit passengers from this December.
“In the meantime, Wrexham & Shropshire remains committed to offering all passengers a high quality, customer focused service, from selling tickets on board to serving freshly prepared food.”
By John Kirk
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Hoping that the timetable will be improved, but more importantly, that they get trains that don’t break down. 1hr15 late yesterday evening thanks to a dodgy DVT at Marylebone, and not so much as a free cuppa for the stranded passengers. My train to London on Tues was 45 mins late arriving too. W&S have one more chance, and then I’m back to Virgin
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A spokesperson from Wrexham & Shropshire said:
On Sunday one of our trains was considerably delayed due to a technical fault on one of the vehicles and, as a result, the train was unable to start its journey from London.
We understand how important it is for people travelling with us to complete their journeys and therefore made every effort to run the train by rearranging our services to provide a different train, but unfortunately most passengers did experience a significant delay of up to 75 minutes. For this we apologise sincerely.
While such instances are rare, when they do occur and passengers experience a delay of more than 30 minutes it is our policy to offer a full refund for the journey or tickets for a future journey at the time of the passenger’s choosing. In an effort to make this easier we will always try to take names and contact details on the train and to contact the customer after the event. We are currently in the process of contacting the passengers who were affected last Sunday.
Nevertheless, we fully take on board the fact that the gentleman who wrote to you was hugely inconvenienced, particularly as he was delayed earlier in the week due to signal failures near Marylebone. We hope he takes up our offer of another journey so that we can convince him that he was unlucky to be on two delayed trains, that this does not reflect our normal performance and that it is worth staying with Wrexham & Shropshire. ”
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I’m really pleased with the response from W&S, and true to their word, they have made attempts to personally contact everyone who was delayed, which can’t have been easy. There’s no doubting that W&S customer service is excellent, and its very gratifying when a company like this holds their hands up and publicly says sorry.
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