So, farewell Wrexham & Shropshire trains…
Friday 28th January 2011, 11:17AM GMT.
Shropshire’s direct rail link to London will end today with the last train due to travel along the route tonight – but campaigners have vowed the battle to save it will not end with the last journey and their fight will continue.
Passengers were making their final journeys to and from the capital on the Wrexham & Shropshire service to mark the end of the link after three years.
The final train to the capital is due to leave Shrewsbury at 2.07pm, with the last service along the route due to return to the town at 9.44pm.
But politicians said they would not stop the fight until a service to the capital is reinstated.
Today Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury, said: “All the Shropshire MPs are working cross-party to try to ensure a direct service is reinstated as soon as possible. The battle will continue.”
It came as Adrian Shooter, the chairman of service provider Wrexham & Shropshire, spoke of his sadness at the end of the service. It is said to have made a loss of £2.8 million last year. He said it was a “very, very sad day” and praised the service’s 55 employees, for helping it secure the highest ratings in the UK for passenger satisfaction in a study by Passenger Focus this week.
“It’s so sad that on Tuesday evening I had to go and tell them that most unfortunately we had reached an unavoidable decision that we had to close the company,” he said.
“As you would expect, we are doing everything we possibly can to find people alternative jobs.”
“All the other rail companies have rallied around to provide a list of vacancies and we will make sure our people are aware of this. They will still be our employees until we settle them in another job or give them their redundancy pay.”
l Loss — See Page 19
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I’m so pleased to see all our politicians working together on this. The direct rail link to London is so important for the county and having used the Wrexham and Shropshire service I can only say – it’s a sad day! Clean trains with efficient staff – if only all train services were this good!!!
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The reason this service has ceased is because it is not ecomomically viable. End of story.
It may have been a lovely route with good service, clean trains and pleasant staff but the simple fact is that it has to turn a profit. No company will continue with a loss making division in fact, in the bigger picture, to do so could undermine the company as a whole.
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The closure of this route is devastating for me and my family. I understand the need to provide a profit making service but the cynical way in which it was closed with only two days notice is utterly reprehensible. The alternatives are much more complex and hugely more expensive. My wife and I are both owed refunds for suddenly cancelled trains and, of course, our emails sent weeks ago have been ignored so the refunds I suspect will not be forthcoming. A tawdry was to behave for what had been a terrific service. It’s extraordinary that a company can stop summarily a travel service, on which many people rely, with two days notice. A few weeks would have given regular travellers time to explore other options but two days is disgraceful.
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A sad day indeed that we have lost our direct service to London. Surely if this service was seen as a boon to the region, regional assistance should have been provided to maintain the service.
I agress with Ross above… more than 2 days notice should have been given so that local MP’s, councilors, business people, etc…could have had the time to discuss with W&S a means to help maintain the service.
I last took a journey on the W&S from / to Wellington down to Marylebone on the 12th January (to visit a trade show in Islington)…no hint of impending doom was obvious.
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Aw , bless , you only got two days notice to explore other ways to travel ! Get real , there`s plenty of options, use the internet !! What is disgraceful is that 55 loyal hardworking staff are out of work now, what are their options ? Maybe the German paymasters would like to chip in a bit more ?
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