MP calls for urgent meeting over state of Shrewsbury railway station

Although the front facade of Shrewsbury Station has been spruced up and an innovative lighting display installed the rear of the building and its walkways have become tired.

Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, has now written to both Network Rail and Arriva Trains calling for an urgent meeting with them at the railway station to talk the matter through.

"There seems to be something of a jigsaw of responsibility at Shrewsbury station," said Mr Kawczynski. "A few years ago I asked them to upgrade the front of the building which they did and it looks very good now from the road.

"But if you are a passenger arriving at Shrewsbury on a train, the toilets and the platforms look tired and out of sorts. They do not give a favourable impression at all. The back of the building frankly looks appalling. There is discolouration, the bridge is corroded and there is buddleia growing everywhere. Shrewsbury is a very beautiful and wonderful town but the station from platform level is very poor."

Mr Kawczynski said he had asked both Network Rail and Arriva Trains respectively about the situation at the railway station but there seemed to be some confusion as to who was responsible for which areas.

"There is a very complex jigsaw for all the different areas at the station," he said. "So this is why I have requested they meet with me there so we can all be together as I point out my concerns and we can more forward. I am very concerned about these issues. There has been a lot of buck passing and it is the train station that suffers as a result."

Mr Kawczynski said he had written to both Arriva Trains and Network Rail and was awaiting their response.

Arriva Trains confirmed they were liaising with Mr Kawczynski's office with regard to the matter. No one was available from Network Rail.

Meanwhile, Telford MP David Wright today said he supports proposals to bring Britain's railways back into public ownership.

Mr Wright was speaking after 31 prospective Labour MPs wrote a letter calling for the party to renationalise the rail industry when current franchises end.

Mr Wright said: "I am broadly supportive of the idea of bringing each franchise back into public ownership when they expire.

"It couldn't work in the old sweeping nationalisation each route and old franchise would need to keep its identity.

In recent estimates, the Conservative Party suggested that renationalising the railways would add "at least £10bn" to the UK's budget deficit.

In their letter, the Labour candidates said said rail fares were contributing to a "cost of living crisis" and they believe that season tickets were now the largest monthly expense for commuters.

They said: "Just as Labour has pledged to freeze energy bills and reset the market to secure a better deal for customers, so it will be necessary to reform the rail industry to secure a better deal for passengers."

The candidates, who will be fighting for seats at the next general election, said train companies were taking "hundreds of millions of pounds every year, despite running monopoly services and benefiting from £4bn of public investment in the rail network every year".

The East Coast Mainline, which covers the route between London and Edinburgh, has been publicly run since 2009 but the Government is currently looking for bidders to take it back into private hands by 2015.

In their letter, the Labour candidates claimed the rail lines success since it was taken out of the hands of previous operator National Express had shown there was another way to run the railways.

The TSSA rail union has previously claimed that the line has been the cheapest franchise to run for the past five years and has produced the best return to taxpayers.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said the party was looking at all options for the railways but would not go back to "old-style British rail."

Britain's railways were nationalised by Labour in 1948 but were returned to private hands in 1993 by John Major's Conservative government.