Shropshire may see return of direct trains to London
Monday 23rd January 2012, 5:00PM GMT.
Four companies were today expected to start bidding for the West Coast Main Line train franchise which could see Shrewsbury’s direct rail link to London restored.
Transport Minister Theresa Villiers today launched the official bidding process for the franchise, which is due to be launched by December 9.
Virgin Trains, First Group, Abellio and Keolis are expected to compete for the contract with all bids needing to be in by May 1.
Top level talks have been taking place in Westminster between MPs from Shropshire and the bidders who have been putting their business case’s forward for the county’s service to the capital to be restored.
It is not known whether each of the bids includes a service from Shrewsbury to London but Shropshire Council leaders and MPs say they have made a ‘strong case’ for a morning and evening service to the capital, running both ways between London and Chester, stopping at Shrewsbury, Telford and Gobowen in Shropshire.
MP Daniel Kawczynski, for Shrewsbury & Atcham, said he hoped the service would see Shropshire’s direct link restored.
He: “We are in the process of meeting with all the train operators and we hope they will incorporate a Shropshire service into their plans.
“Talks have gone very well so far and it is vitally important for Shrewsbury as the county town to have that direct link to the capital.”
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Sadly within 18 months there will be a use or lose it call.
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And when nobody uses them the service will be removed, like last time, the time before that & if I’m not mistaken…..the time before that!
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Why does the Star do this?
It constantly blows unrealistic trumpets as regards business and the economy in the county.
The lobbying of local MPs will have absolutely no impact on the bidding companies whose concern is profitability. There isn’t a large enough passenger base – that’s why the service failed before.
Shropshire Star you do nobody a service by this sad wishful thinking.
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All well and good but people will only use them if (a) they offer good value and/or (b) like Mr Kawczynski you get your travel paid for by somebody else.
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Oh here we go again, it will be the same old story, relatively popular for the first few weeks,as per usual the bulk of the passengers will board at Shrewsbury, Wellington and Telford, the bulk will be off by the time it gets to New Street and the train will be full of passengers from Wolverhampton and Birmingham. The return journey will be more or less the same scenario in reverse, almost empty by the time it pulls into Shrewsbury (late of course because of the engine change at Wolverhampton). Soon the ‘Use it or Lose it’ campaign will kick in and 12 months down the line the service will cease.
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Engine change….what about the time it takes to take on board coal and water..
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Change from electric to diesel??? this practice ceased in the early years of privatisation. Virgin no longer use electric engines and for that matter diesel engines to haul theyre trains. They were replaced a number of years ago by Virgin Voyagers (diesel) or Pendolinos (electric)
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What a negative lot of sad responses from people who have a total lack of understanding of connectivity and business. Shropshire is presently totally isolated from the mainstream of public transport. Compare Shrewsbury with the positive developments going on in Stafford (with its fast inter-city links to London). Similar sized towns, with Stafford now having a university and lots of national businesses – Shrewsbury standing still or even going backwards!. Until all of these ‘backwoods’ people realise the importance of fast transport links, Shropshire will remain off the national map – I expect many of these negative people would like that.
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I think you’ve misundersttod.
People aren’t saying that Shropshire doesn’t need a boost. Without it it may become an economic backwater. However the rail link to London won’t happen because the economics of it aren’t attractive to rail companies.
It would be good but it ain’t going to happen ! ( and it’s daft of the Star to put such a nonsensically optimistic headline on the article).
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Yes please!
That is all.
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I used the old service about 2-4 times a month, it was cheep, quick and made my life much much easier.
Ill accept I was not a massive boost to passenger numbers but when the service was called off the current service cost in excess of £98 from the £40? it was priced at.
At this price I cannot afford the train and now take my own car.
Passenger numbers aside the only way to take cars off the road is to make public transport cheaper than the alternatives.
I for one would welcome this service back.
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The old service was so comfortable and friendly but the timetable was impossible if doing business or wanting to have a long day out in London. I always stayed over but I have family there. Hotel prices in the capital can make a trip very expensive.
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It won’t happen because the line from Wolverhampton is not electrified. Drive to Stafford (or take the 481 bus from Telford) and take the direct 1hr 20mins Virgin service. Top class!
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… or get the train to Crewe but don’t buy a ticket on a Virgin train as we can between S’bury and Crewe, even if you are late. A few years ago this girl, who is more familiar with other train companies, was fleeced for £169 – not even peak time. Ouch!
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Its already been proven many times that this link is not economical because the lines to shrewsbury are not electrified, this causes great cost as Diesel units are required which are more expensive to run…
… until they start talking about the electrification of the shrewsbury to Wolverhampton line then there isnt much point in launching another ‘temp’ link to London.
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How handy; I for one would start to use it if only I could get public transport to and from the station that operated before 6am and after 6pm!
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This is utter rubbish. I got the 06:31 from Shrewsbury the other day, changed at New St onto the 07:30 which got me into Euston at 08:40. Why the need for a direct service if WSMR failed?
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I agree that the service between New Street and Euston is very good. However, I think there needs to be an improvement in service between Shrewsbury and New Street. I have used a few times recently and experienced severe overcrowding which resulted in passengers not being able to board at some of the stations on route. The passengers that were on board were crammed in very tightly which in itself must be a safety risk.
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Integrate it fully with the West Coast Mainline, electrify the lines and bingo.. Both Telford & Shrewsbury independent of each other are growing, its about time the rail services moved out of the 20th century. Electrification would also mean more services could run in general, as it would cut the cost, ruling out the running of diesel units altogether.
Or as previously mentioned, somehow pull funding out of the ether and re-instate a connection to Stafford, as well as pulling trees and buildings out of the ground.
Virgin run a smooth enough service from Wolverhampton, Stafford & Birmingham New St as part of WCML, I can’t see why it wouldn’t work from Shropshire.
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Alex is absolutely right – without electrification it makes no sense. Occupying a platform for 10-15 minutes at Wolverhampton to change traction, in an horrendously congested bottleneck, is unacceptable to both Network Rail and ATOC in timetabling terms. And it will be many years before the ‘dual fuel’ IEP trains appear – which will initially only be deployed to run from London beyond Cardiff and Edinburgh.
Then there is the question of passenger numbers – you have to think seriously about how many businesses in Shropshire need to send executives regularly beyween Shropshire and London given the types of businesses located in the area. It certainly isn’t a ‘commute’. If Shrewsbury, Telford sold more than an average of 20 through tickets a day between them I would be very surprised
The converse – how many businesses might choose to locate in Shropshire if there was easier access to London – is more difficult to define but I reckon that the cost and availability of suitable premises, the presence of a suitably skilled workforce and the incentives offered by the local authorities would rank at positions 1 to 3 with London links trailing in at about 10.
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Pointless, if people want to work in London they should live in London, instead of moving to the countryside and pushing up house prices to make it unaffordable for youngsters.
We should make it as hard as possible to get from London to Shropshire instead of easier.
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Few people would want to do that commute very often. On your point about people living in London if they work there, what about couples where person works in one town and the other elsewhere? It’s common nowadays.
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I do that commute every week.
3 days in London, 2 days working at home.
Train every time, opportunity to work in peace.
Always travel via Crewe, quick to get to, 1hr 40 to London.
My wife works in Shropshire, perhaps we should just both move to London and she does the reverse commute?
Or shall we just ignore the Welsh windbag, and dream of English independence from them and the Scots?
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Or both of you just move to London.
Slightly unfair that your earning a London inflated salary and pushing youngsters out of the property market in Shropshire, don’t you think?
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Electrification, better links to the fast London services on the Crewe/Stafford line, maybe better West to East of Britain links, some sort of “by-pass” of the Wolverhampton to New Street slow link This would be a much better use for HS2 investment money that would benefit far more people and the country.
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No need for electrification, use Voyagers (one Euston – Wolves return service already does) or drag pendilinos, as has been done on the North Wales Coast.
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