7,000 sign Wrexham and Shropshire trains petition
Thursday 10th March 2011, 11:30AM GMT.
More than 7,000 people have signed a petition in a bid to save Shropshire’s direct rail link to London, campaigners revealed today.
Alex Matthews launched the Save Wrexham & Shropshire Rail Service petition on the website Petition Buzz after discovering services were being terminated.
He said the petition’s original target was 5,000 signatures – but has actually now reached 7,300.
Mr Matthews today said the petition would now be handed in to government minister Theresa Villiers at Parliament later this month.
He said: “In the end we’ve had 7,300 signatures, and it has generated quite a bit of interest in the local press, radio and TV, which is great . I would like to thank everyone who has supported us.
“The latest news is the the local MPs are meeting Theresa Villiers, the Minister for Transport, later this month and the petition will be formally presented to the House around the same time.
“I have also created a website to host any information on moves to reinstate a direct line between Shropshire and London.
“Please take a look, enter your email address if you’d like to be kept up to date, and if you’ve anything to add, please register and submit your information or thoughts.”
The site www.shropshirelondondirect.org offers the public the chance to register their ideas and suggestions.
Fellow campaigner Nick Jenkins said last month campaigners were also talking to the Go Co, a co-operative which is trying to set up an open access rail service from Westbury-Oxford-Birmingham, in a bid to ensure Shropshire’s direct rail link with the capital is restored.
In an open letter to MPs and ministers on the website, Mr Matthews said Wrexham & Shropshire set very high customer service standards and was hugely popular.
He said people in the area were desperate for a direct rail link with London to be re-established.
Mr Matthews is urging people to write to their MP to put pressure on the government, ahead of the next franchising process due in 2012.
Wrexham & Shropshire announced it was shutting the rail link at the end of January, less than three years after it launched, with the loss of 55 jobs.
Bosses blamed falling passenger numbers for the decision and said last year alone the service made a loss of £2.8 million.
By Russell Roberts
UK News
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Worth a try. Might encourage the government to ask for a Shropshire to London service to be included as part of the West Coast franchise.
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So, approximately half a million people in the Shropshire / Mid Wales area couldn’t give a stuff.
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,,,,,and if these 7,300 had used the service maybe it could have survived.
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So 7000 people,90% of whom have probably never used the service want it reinstating.
OK put your money where your mouth is and pay for it yourselves, fair enough I think, but I doubt that they will but will be quite happy for the likes of myself to sponser their transport even though I have not been on a train for about 40 years. Get real!!!!!!
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I don’t own a car yet a large proportion of the council tax I pay goes to sponsor the building and maintenance of roads which I never use. Maybe drivers should put their money where their mouth is too, then we might be able to afford to use these kind of rail services more often.
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So, never use a bus or taxi?
Never got a lift in someone else’s car?
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Every item of goods and a proportion of services you use are delivered via road transport. Which us drivers heavily support.
Time you coughed up!
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Well done to Alex Matthews for organising this petition. Let’s see if our elected representatives do anything!! Shropshire is becoming isolated from the rest of the country. However, I think some of our luddites would like it to stay that way!!!
We all must keep the pressure on for better public transport throughout the county.
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Isolated? M54 anyone?
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What a helpful comment by Harold. The negativity of some people in our county never ceases to amaze me.
I would have supported this petition but I was unaware of it until I saw this article today. I’m sure more people would sign it if they knew.
I’ve found the link after a quick search on Google: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/wrexhamandshropshire
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Everyone’s entitled to their own views, but for those who want to show their support for the service and keep up to date with progress of plans to get the route reinstated, there are two main sites: http://www.shropshirelondondirect.org/ and the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/SaveWrexShropRail/
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I’m not here to help, Benbow Tom, and I’m not being negative: I’m merely stated an obvious fact.
If you’d like to re-instate a direct rail service from Shropshire to London, perhaps you and the 7,000 other fans would like to organise it yourselves as part of the Big Society? You won’t get very far because the demand simply isn’t there.
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No railway company has ever made any money, they all run by government subsidy. Surely you would want your taxes to benefit your area not just Wolverhampton.
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You are so wrong. That may be true in England but here in Brisbane Australia things are very positive.
The reason being the design of our trains.
I challenge vociferous and repetitive Harold Peasbody and any other doubters to visit Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and on arrival take the Airport Train to the City.
Then continually use “City-Train” to visit anywhere up to 80 klms distance from Brisbane.
You will immediately see why our trains are successful.
They have access for: Mobility scooters—Wheelchairs—Prams—Bicycles—Surfboards—Mothers with double prams and people of all sizes!
I use a mobility scooter and was unable to travel on ANY trains or buses on my visit to Shropshire England in 2007.
Below is an example from the Brisbane Airport to the Gold-Coast, a world famous resort.
10.31am at International Airport Railway Station Take train VARS-X – Airport to Varsity Lakes Express
1 hour 33 minutes Trip details 10.31am from International Airport Railway Station
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With names like Colin and Harold I am probably sure that just getting to the station would be an uphill struggle!!! I still have the pleasure of seeing the WMSR between Banbury and Haddenham and Thame. My two and a half year old boy only sees steam on special days and in a museum. If it wasn’t for Chiltern working the stock now, the WMSR would be gone the way of steam!!! The 7000+ by the way could be a culmination of people who have used the service, think outside the box ladies. Lets not put this service in the loft for a stint on antiques roadshow, it deserves better and nowhere else in this country would you find a better staffed railway. The only ones who benefit now are the companies that take on the staff that were made redundant.
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Shropshire does stretch further than the M54…we have enough of a North South divide in the country…so let’s not have one in our own county! No one is asking for it to be subsidised, just merely asking for a direct link to our capital city…are we not allowed that! The service was exemplary!!
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What goods a petition? If its not viable to run, no one is going to run it!
Maybe the 7,000 who signed it can all put £10 a week in to help run the service.
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or the 7000 people could just use the service regularly – then there would be no need for a petition
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Ironically this railway company had topped the polls for customer satisfaction. Virgin trains runs dozens of near empty trains a day from Wolverhampton. I’m sure they would not survive if they had to rely without government subsidy like Wrexham and Shropshire did.
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