Thousands back Wrexham & Shropshire trains complaint
Thursday 3rd February 2011, 12:13PM GMT.
A campaigner who launched a petition to save Shropshire’s direct rail-link to London today said he would ask the county’s MPs to present it in Parliament – as the number of people signing it topped 6,000.
Alex Matthews launched the Save Wrexham & Shropshire Rail Service petition on the website Petition Buzz after discovering the link was being closed.
And people have taken the campaign to their hearts with more than 6,300 people signing it by this morning.
Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski has already vowed to raise the petition in the House of Commons.
Today Mr Matthews, from Montgomery in Mid Wales, said he would wait until the end of the week before contacting Shropshire MPs.
The shock announcement that service provider Wrexham & Shropshire was shutting the rail link came last week and within days it had closed after less than three years. Last year it lost nearly £3 million.
Mr Matthews said: “I set up this petition because I was so incensed by the whole situation. It’s great and shows there are a lot of people clearly passionate about it.”
This week Telford MP David Wright said all of Shropshire’s MPs and the MP for Wrexham had agreed to try to meet up with Transport Minister Theresa Villiers to discuss the issue of the axed rail link.
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Well done Alex! This is just the beginning of a big campaign to get back our direct rail service to London. Could I urge everyone to lobby Philip Hammond (Sec of State for Transport) on this issue as it seems that the reasons given for the closure are not exactly as it seems!!
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Although I am sad to see the loss of this direct rail service to London, the low number of signatures on this petition shows what this issue is a real insignificance. The combined population of Shropshire and the mid Wales & Wrexham area is at least 600,000 so, at best, only 1% of the population is actually bothered.
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A whole 6000?! And i would suspect that at the very most only 50% have used the service, the rest are just jumping onto a passing band wagon.
Face facts…the service will not be re-instated because it’s not viable.
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I think you fail to understand that the WSMR was not subsidised by the tax payer, in contrast to the £156 million annual subsidy paid to Arriva Trains Wales and £184 million subsidy to London Midland Trains (the 2 other rail operators in Shropshire). Shropshire as a county will lose for more than the £2.8 million needed by the WSMR through fewer tourists and less business investment. Shropshire is now the only county in England without a direct rail link to London!
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The service would be viable if it had not been stitched up by other operators who are in receipt of massive public subsidies. In addition how many of the other operators services would be there without public subsidies. Level playing field please.
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Mr AWJ – Yes indeed but the support is not only to reinstate a service but also support for the 55 employess me being on of them who are now unemployed – where there is always a positive there is always someone somewhere who will do it down
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“Face facts…the service will not be re-instated because it’s not viable.”
That is exactly the fact we can experience on Virgin and London Midland trains. There is no service even though the tickets are very expensive. Took a Wrexham & Shropshire service from London to Cosford and back last summer and loved it. It’s a crying shame that next time I’ll have to take a London Midland “service” with no service at all.
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It was not viable because competitors wanted it killed off. They did a good job. Now, if only these competitors could get trains at the same standard of Wrexham and Shropshire (not smelling like cesspits, like some services!) they might have something.
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Killed off by using our public subsidy monies?
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if people want to join the petition here is the link: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/wrexhamandshropshire
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