Telford MP Lucy Allan calls for extra trains to curb overcrowding on Shrewsbury route

Telford MP Lucy Allan is calling on London Midland to put on an extra service every hour calling at the two towns in a bid to cure the crush.

But the train operator said it would be unlikely because of issues with cost and reliability.

Ms Allan said she had met bosses of London Midland as well as transport ministers at Whitehall to discuss the issue.

She said: "I think there is a lack of capacity on the Telford route. I think that is something we have got to tackle. It may be through electrification in the long term.

"But in the here and now there needs to be an additional service added per hour, and there is a clear case for that.

"London Midland say it's not commercial, there is no simple solutions, but I don't accept that because it's not good enough.

"People use that route for everyday travel, whether its leisure, college or work. We need to have investment schemes that impact on people's everyday lives."

The MP said the infrequency of trains was causing overcrowding. That, in turn, was hindering Telford's growth prospects.

"The big problem is this lack of capacity in that the routes don't run very frequently. So if you've missed one train you've got to wait.

"I find, for instance, that I have to wait quite often at Wolverhampton station when I'm coming up from London. There isn't a train perhaps for another hour because it's 9pm at night and I've just missed the last train before that.

"Of course, it then becomes very crowded. I think there needs to be more appetite because this is fundamental to Telford's economy.

"I don't think its good enough for train companies to simply say it's not a simple solution for Telford. It has to be, it's a booming, growth area.

"We need to be better connected for business, jobs and growth, and electrification has to be in the pipeline," she said.

"I have spoken to the transport minister about this and obviously I have also spoken to the train operating companies as well.

"But it's not coming up in the near, near future so we are going to have to do something about adding an extra route, an extra slot to the hour, because two an hour is not enough and that impacts then on overcrowding.

"If you haven't got enough trains, people will crowd on - and it's a brilliant line, it takes you into Birmingham - but you just can't do it if there are too many other people wanting to travel too."

A London Midland spokesman said in theory there would be room for an extra train running in each direction every hour. But he added that providing an extra trains would be costly in terms of train crew and rolling stock, and reliability would need to be investigated because of freight traffic on the route.