Letter: Best chance of developing Shropshire to London rail link
Friday 22nd July 2011, 6:00AM BST.
Letter: Rail passengers, businesses and tourist facilities only have until August 17, to write to the Department for Transport to make their views known regarding the specifications for the new West Coast Rail franchise, which will commence in December 2012.
This is the only opportunity for the passengers of the Wellington and Telford area to get a new direct rail service to London. I believe this is an urgent requirement to support economic and tourism development in our area, as Shropshire is now the only county in England without a direct rail link to London.
Poor public transport in this region is a major deterrent to business relocating here and to tourists.
I believe everyone interested in this issue should write to the DfT stating we need a direct rail service from Shropshire to London calling at Wellington and Telford stations and that it needs to be specified in the new franchise document.
The address to write to is: Inter City West Coast Franchise Consultation Manager Department for Transport, Zone 5/26, Great Minster Street, 76 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DR, or e-mail: intercitywest coast@dft.gsi.gov.uk
Bill Jones
Wellington
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Electrify the Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton line and run the London trains, that currently start/end their journeys at Wolverhampton, to/from Shrewsbury instead.
Oh but wait, this is England. We’ll be waiting another 20 years while they conduct several studies into this idea, which alone would cost as much as the electrification!
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Whilst electrifying to Shrewsbury would enable direct London services by the high speed services this would not survive any sensible cost/benefit analysis alone. Even only one London train in each ‘rush hour’ would fail to pay its way.
The most compelling argument for the capital investment required is to enable London Midland to run semi-fast electric services from Shrewsbury to Northampton calling only at principal stations – Wellington, Telford, Wolverhampton, New Street, International, Coventry and Rugby.
These would provide a much-needed link right across the Midlands.
And when you add to the equation the possibility of extending some existing LM services from Euston to New Street on to Shrewsbury you get a low cost (if slower) option that connects the county much more generally and regularly to the south-east of the country, rather than just to Euston.
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According to the DfT’s website and the relevant consultation document, the deadline for replies was the… 21st April 2011.
Bit late now…
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Absolutely right, Old Salopian, the consultation on all services using the tracks between between Shrewsbury & Wolverhampton closed months ago.
But that doesn’t mean there’s no way of appealing for a Shrewsbury service to be included in the WCML franchise – just a snowball’s chance in hell of it succeeding
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