Fresh doubts on Shropshire's direct London rail link
Shropshire's long-awaited direct rail link to London was thrown into fresh confusion today after MPs demanded the Government delay signing a new deal.
Rail operator FirstGroup won the contract to operate the busy mixed-traffic West Coast Main Line from London to Scotland last week and immediately pledged to reinstate a direct link from Shrewsbury and Telford to the capital.
It says trains will run from the county to Euston from 2016 – the first time Shropshire has had a direct route since the axing of the Shropshire and Wrexham service to Marylebone in January 2011.
But Labour MPs today demanded the Government holds off signing the deal amid fears FirstGroup’s £5.5bn bid is unrealistic.
The party says MPs must have the chance to consider the decision to take the franchise from current operator Virgin Trains and give it to FirstGroup for the next 14 years.
Maria Eagle, shadow transport secretary, said there were concerns over how the move would affect fares and levels of service.
FirstGroup says it will bring in key improvements for passengers as well as opening up direct routes to Shropshire and improving value-for-money for passengers and taxpayers.
The Department for Transport said it had ‘no reason’ to delay the signing until after Parliament returns next week.
Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson offered to run the line for free to allow more time to debate the issue.
Sir Richard today said he believed FirstGroup would not have enough money to run the line.
He said: “We just want the facts examined. We believe the facts will prove us to be right and we believe that Virgin will end up continuing to run the line.
“We have sent the Department for Transport a list of 30 questions and this is meant to be an open society and we haven’t had one of those questions answered.” More than 134,000 members of the public have signed an online petition against the FirstGroup decision.
Comments for: "Fresh doubts on Shropshire's direct London rail link"
Bill
DON'T PANIC.
The proposed Shropshire service was also in Virgin's proposal as it is DfT policy/strategy to introduce electric trains (the 11 new ones frequently referred to) on the Midlands-Scotland services and use the 'cascaded' 125 mph diesel units for the proposed services to Shrewsbury, Bolton and Blackpool (all of which are 'just off' the electrified network).
It doesn't matter to Shropshire who gets the franchise, a service will be trialled as soon as the rolling stock is available.
Whether it survives is down to how well it is used.
Peter
Should not be any doubt, even if Virgin keep the contract the bar has now been raised on what is expected and they should have to match the best offer.
Ron
Optimistic replies above because this link will not be guaranteed until the line from Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton is electrified!
The 125 mph (Voyager) diesel units mentioned above, cannot use their tilting equipment on the Wast Coast Main Line to Euston. They run at 110 mph maximum, therefore slowing down "Pendolino" tilting electric trains behind them. On a main line running at capacity, that simply will not be allowed to happen.
The big push should be for electrification to improve reliability and capacity along the line from Shropshire to The Midlands, thereby improving already quick one stop connections down to London, and improving the local commuters lot!
Port Hill Boy
Bill - it won't be well used!
There aren't enough major attractions in Shropshire to bring mass numbers of tourists and neither is the business infrastructure big enough to generate numbers of passengers. The headlong rush to present Shropshire as a county of artisan bakers, twee restaurants, and hand reared sausages just isn't helpful in the real world.
Double Dee
For goodness sakes! Time and time again Shrewsbury has proved that it cannot support a direct route to London. A handful of very vocal people trying to shave minutes off the commute, whilst the rest of us struggle to pay the fare for a day out.
I'm quite happy taking a stroll to a coffee shop in New Street. It really, really isn't a problem. If you live too far from London, move house. If Virgin can do an off-peak ticket Manchester to London for £12, I'm backing them in the hope they offer a similar great price for Shrewsbury to London.
Roger
This is not about who but how. Is the Dft acting in the best interest of the Tax Payer. The methodology has caused two successive franchise failures on the East Coast Main line. Branson thinks is wrong to place a franchise with a franchisee who has clearly over priced his bid to get the contract which then causes the franchisee to go broke. His bile is mainly down to the fact that he tenders and loses and then the winner goes bust, time and time again. If the original tender had been properly tested it would have been rejected as unrealistic and Virgin would have won in all cases. So the expensive tendering process is a waste of money if the right answer is not reached.
I agree, these tenders put Virgin ahead on income for the first ten years of the contract and then First Group miraculously produce an addition 2 Billion in the last three years. Of course if First group have got it wrong they can still prosper for ten years and then declare themselves unable to pay the extra 2 Billion and walk away. We have a bond to protect us from that which is worth 250million so no deterrent.
The people who should be looking at that are the Dft and it is them we are looking at to see their logic as to how they found that acceptable.
No mater who gets the franchise our direct service is there as a trial service. The commercial judgement as to, will it go on after the trial is the Franchisee’s.
If we want to improve the chances of it being commercially acceptable the best thing is to use it and to get electrification as this improves the attractiveness of the service. Separate issues, only for us, to press our own populous and Rail Track.