Shropshire to get direct rail link to London
Shropshire is to get a new direct rail service to London from 2016, it was announced today.
Shropshire is to get a new direct rail service to London from 2016, it was announced today.
New routes from London to Telford and Shrewsbury are to be introduced in four years’ time after FirstGroup was handed the franchise to run to InterCity West Coast main line in a £5.5 billion deal with the Government.
Campaigners from the county were celebrating today after the deal was announced this morning by the Department for Transport.
A spokesman for the Department of Transport said: “Initially First West Coast Limited will operate the timetable they will inherit from the current franchise.
“But they are seeking to introduce a number of new services including a London Euston to Blackpool service from 2013 and from 2016 services from London to Telford Central, Shrewsbury and Bolton.”
The franchise, which stretches from London to Glasgow, had previously been run by Virgin Trains.
Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson today described the decision as ‘insanity’ and added: “Our achievements have counted for little – as this is the fourth time that we have been outbid in a rail tender.
“On the past three occasions, the winning operator has come nowhere close to delivering their promised plans and revenue, and has let the public and country down dramatically.”
The new deal will begin this December and run initially until March 2026, but could be extended for a further 20 months after that.
FirstGroup have said they will provide thousands of extra seats for passengers on the routes, as well as cutting the cost of ‘Standard Anytime’ fares by an average 15 per cent in the next two years.
Read more coverage and reaction in today's Shropshire Star
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Comments for: "Shropshire to get direct rail link to London"
dr beeching
pie in the sky, a pipe dream, a non story
Drone
Four years?? Plenty of time to revisit and decide it's not fiscally prudent!
BlueWolf
This rail link has failed many times, there isn't enough use for it. Expect train tickets to cost a lot more than the likes of Wrexham and Shropshire when they finally arrive
Doubter
4 years time, why so long it would only take a day or 2 to speak with other operators who have previously run this service to see how many people actually used it and realise it would run at a loss.
The Original Jake
The difference here is that the service was included as part of a bid to win the West Coast contract. First Group will be contractually obliged to provide it. It's a loss leader.
Until we see the details, we won't know whether it will be any good, of course. I imagine I'll still be driving to Stafford to catch the fast train to Euston.
Roger
This is the first flush of winning the franchise for First Group. At this stage they will be full of promises and be talking up expectations. For the first year or so they will be considering how to run the existing with no effect on services at lower costs. The promises for services beyond the first few years are things they can not deliver now and will only deliver if they have to. Once fully establish they will start to talk down expectations and withdraw and adjust services to improve profitability.
In the case of Shrewsbury's direct service they may well link it to electrification for which they are “not” responsible and/or offer a different service such as changing at Wolverhampton to meet the other objective of reducing pollution by not running diesel trains on electric lines etc.
In my view the offer being deferred to 2016 is an indicator that it will not be delivered unless the profitability can be improved. This is not a war won it is a battle won and the tactical attack will need to be sustained constantly or the war will be lost. At this moment in time we have won nothing real.
Virgin are saying that the bid is unviable. Well they would wouldn't they. But they may have illustrated that the margin by which they lost the bid is a reflection of what First Group can not deliver profitably. That is not a threat to the main line electric services which are profitable but to the subsidiary and new services included in the franchise.
The government in the run up to a general election are not going to admit that they got this wrong so are likely to quietly relax the requirements. 2016 Is the other side of an election and that makes it politically vulnerable to cutting.
I don't think that this announcement means anything for us.
Munchkin
I'll believe it when I see it, far easier to get the train to Chester then fast train to London, far quicker.
Colin Dodd.
You either like him or hate him, but in this case I agree with Richard Branson, the fares they will have to charge to pay for this insane bid, will price people off the trains and back onto the road
R.I.P. the London link.
The Original Jake
In other news: Ageing hippy caught on camera urinating in train doorway.
Bill
You must be a Private Eye reader!
The Original Jake
Hey, you changed the picture! Where's the one of Branson having a wee in his loco?
Todd Nash
Just wanted to make you look silly Jake...
No, unfortunately for Mr Branson that original picture chopped his head off when it cropped for the homepage. Which is possibly even more unfortunate than having to relieve yourself in a train doorway on camera.
Adrian Plimmer
It's to do with a casdcading of stock from the Brum - Glasgow/ Edinburgh route. Diesel Voyagers are being replaced by 11 six car electric trains. When these have bene built, they will then release the Voyagers.
Roger
Voyager would be too small, super voyager might be just big enough based on demand when I used the service back in the eighties and I believe the damand has risen. Maybe increased frequency could solve that
However I suspect that what we need is electrification from Wolverhampton so that the existing london Wolves stock can carry on through. One of the franchise aims is to stop running diesel powered trains on electrified lines.
adetheshades
Sooner go on the Coach, far cheaper!
Bill
Whatever may have been promised the key point is that none of this is to be delivered until after the next General Election.
None of the published informtion shows forecasts for loadings/revenue/costs for running a diesel service from London to Shropshire - let alone how many each day. One each way to get Shropshire political bigwigs to London doesn't encourage London businessmen to come up to Shropshire !!
There will be a change of government in 2015, either a re-balanced coalition or a majority. The results will be:
Cons majority - First Group simply 'let off' because it's unprofitable and shareholders come first. If they are told to stick to their promises (unlikely), they'll do what they've done with Great Western - walk away early
Lab majority - contributions from franchise to government strictly enforced to pay for other govt. projects, unions allowed to prevent efficiency savings - no chance of funding a marginal service now
Lib/Lab coalition - as for Lab above but messier
Lib/Con coalition - postponement and prevarication
Roger
Sadly I suspect that you have hit the significance of the general election on the head as viewed by First Group. They will try to get the issue settled before the election by threatening to back away. This would be a political embarrassment therefore completely unacceptable. Thus ensuring the lowering of expectation is contractually committed before the election. Shrewsbury's service will be only a small part of it. They have a billion to recoup if virgin got it right.
For the cynics who do not believe that big business think this way "WAKE UP" Take a look at Veolia 6.6% increase in payment this year for less work and we pay their legal cost for the appealing against council planning refusal. We pay more they do less profits rise. Look at Veolia's report published today and where the increased profits came from.
Rob H
Transport minister interviewed on Radio 4 stated that the "new routes to Blackpool, Telford and Shrewsbury will be trials". The key word being TRIALS. I have no doubt that there will some worm out clause and that all that will become of these much trumpeted "new routes" are just a franchise maybe!
Telford Ron
Travellers will be once again conspicuous by
their absence as they were when I travelled during the last direct service from Telford to London.
Lots of shout proir to, but no follow up action.
Rob
We will not get a direct route to London, until the line is electrified, how about this for an idea.
Improve the local service first, tell Arriva Train Wales to stop running delapidated, filthy, undersized trains(sardine express).
Lets have trains at sensible times like on the hour and half past the hour, instead of the 2 in 7 mins Shrewsbury bound and 2 in 15 minutes Wolverhampton bound.
Lets have ticket offices that are open or make sure the ticket machines can offer you group savers etc, instead of the highest price ticket.
Lets maintain Wellington station, it only took them 20 years to find the broken drain and i think the last time the place was painted was when the queen visited 30 years ago.
Need i go on, the London Centric Transport Policy does not work for us. Its complete cod's wallop and the day i see a permanant London train service, i will eat my hat.
Enough said.
Roger
I entirely agree. The best chance of getting this service is to improve the profitability of it. That means electrification, better local services and to add my bit, Shrewsbury Parkway station.
All of these factors will increase the commuting between Shrewsbury/Telford and Wolverhampton/ Birmingham. They will also improve the gateway services from beyond Shrewsbury on the Wales and the Marches routes.
There is no need to worry about the Shropshire to London passengers because these are served by the existing franchise from Stafford, Crewe, Wolverhampton and even Chester. It will improve the cash take for the franchisee because the car and arriva section will become a First Group section. Capacity from Birmingham to London is insatiable. The argument must be based on how the Franchisee can improve cash flow by use of the extended Wolverhampton London Service.
People living and working in the West Midlands are the key to this; we need to make it more attractive to live in Shropshire and commute. That is the significance of Shrewsbury Parkway, easy access away from the congested Town Centre to the whole county by fast access roads. This is on top of the advantages for existing users and reductions to congestion in the town. This is the extra money attract to the service.
We all fully understand the advantages of a London Service for Shropshire and that need not be restated now. We now need to focus on the advantages to the franchisee because that is the only way we will get it.
Davey
Absolutely right. I would much rather see time, money and everyone's effort put into improving the service between Shropshire and the West Midlands. I'd much sooner change trains at Wolverhampton/Birmingham onto an electric train than perhaps spend longer on a diesel direct train.
As a regular business and social traveller to London and Birmingham on the train, I think the current Virgin service is actually pretty good. (Yes, I wish it was cheaper, but I've always booked in advance and got a seat). The frustrating part of the journey is the dire service operated by Arriva and London Midland. If we had better, more regular and better spaced-out trains into the West Mids, I'm not even sure we need the direct service. But suspect that's neither a popular view, nor one that's good for politicians.
Roger
I have been doing some research. Network Rail does have the Wolves to Shrewsbury electrification as a gap filling proposal, but it is not in the current programme. As they see it the major advantage lies in the modernisation of rolling stock and track utilisation from Wolverhampton through the West Midland corridor to Rugby and journey times to Shrewsbury. Their proposal is the extension of the hourly Wolverhampton London service to Shrewsbury. The existing DMU services between Shrewsbury and Birmingham would be replaced with EMU's (the stopping trains operated by Arriva and London midland) All Services beyond Shrewsbury would then be modern DMU's terminating in Shrewsbury. It seems to me that they already accept that there is passenger demand and the electrification will benefit platform utilisation at Wolverhampton and on the track east of Wolverhampton. It is part of the overall strategy. With electrification First Group can only gain from addition traffic on services that they do not currently run. To say nothing of all the people that drive to other stations for a fast service.
So the task ahead is to improve passenger numbers to make the electrification more attractive and bring the proposal into the programme with a higher priority.
Political lobbying will also help, Strategies such as gereration of growth through infrastructure investment with specified benefits seem to me to indisputable in this case.
bob crowe
now brothers, we need our railways nationalised. i can pledge the next labour government will take into public ownership each railway as its franchise expires.
my executive committee have unamasly, er are utd in our endevour to see british rail get back into profit and passenger subsidies reduced.
my members are united in their call for a re nationalised british railways.
finally i can work with sir richard branson and between us , we will have a station open near you in time brother!
huw morgan
Note to public bodies
THE CHEAPEST BID IS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST OPTION
(example violia debacle in shropshire)
Will they ever learn?
kerry joyce
virgin is fast but does lack luggage space and charge for wifi, the first bid appears to address these two albeit minor but very important issue as most passangers have a) luggage and b) a phone or laptop to keep them occupied on the journey so it seems positive on that front, the problem will be the huge price rises programmed in by the coalition government who dont realise that travel and getting around is vital to our economy and should be subsidised as it allows labour to move freely thus liberating the jobs market and growign the economy more efficiently