Government minister says train services through Shropshire must improve

The comments come after Shrewsbury & Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski raised his concerns with the Department for Transport about the state of rail lines from Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

The route has faced huge levels of disruption in recent months, with passengers hit with frequent delays or cancellations due to strikes, staffing shortages, broken trains and even the theft of cable.

Responding to the concerns, rail minister Huw Merriman said his department had discussed the issues with rail providers on the route, such as Transport for Wales and West Midlands Trains, and had been assured improvements would be seen by passengers shortly.

Mr Merriman said: "Recent levels of reliability on railway services through Shrewsbury have not been acceptable due to a combination of train and infrastructure issues.

"Train issues have resulted from Transport for Wales recently having to withdraw one of its fleets for safety checks, and from West Midlands Trains introducing a new fleet on this route which, in common with all new fleets, is taking a while to reach the required levels of reliability.

"In addition, there has been an increase in infrastructure issues, some caused by cable theft, and Network Rail has deployed mitigating measures such as enhanced patrols as a result.

"The department and West Midlands Rail Executive are closely working with WMT and officials from TfW on these issues. I am assured good progress has been made and improvements in services should be seen by passengers shortly."

Mr Kawczynski said he was concerned that the situation is leading to passengers abandoning using trains because of frustrations at journeys being repeatedly disrupted.

"I am very disappointed with how the train companies are performing," he said.

"I use trains every week to get back to Shrewsbury and the service is deteriorating in terms of value for money, punctuality and comfort."

He added: "These need to improve before more people abandon train routes."

Responding to the minister's comments, a West Midlands Railway spokesman insisted they were working to improve services.

He said: "Providing a reliable service for our passengers is our top priority.

"Unfortunately in recent weeks a number of issues have resulted in delays and cancellations on the Shrewsbury line, including two instances of cable theft which are currently under investigation by the British Transport Police.

"Last year we introduced a brand new train fleet onto the Shrewsbury line which has improved journeys for our passengers by increasing capacity and providing on-board facilities such as plug sockets and smart air conditioning.

"As is common during the rollout of a new fleet there has been some impact to performance while the trains bed in and we are working hard with the manufacturers to improve reliability for our passengers."

Meanwhile, Jan Chaudhry-Van der Velde, chief operations officer at Transport for Wales, said the company was facing ongoing problems with a number of trains which require safety checks before returning to service.

He said: "We’d like to thank our customers for their continued patience while we continue to work to resolve the issues with our Class 175 trains.

"Our Class 175 trains have been receiving urgent safety checks and engine repairs, after a number of recent incidents. This has left us with a temporary shortage of rolling stock across the network and has meant we have had to redistribute rolling stock to affect the minimum number of passengers possible.

"As the rolling stock shortages have eased, we have been able to restore much of our timetabled service. However, some services are still being operated by different trains with less capacity than usual, so we’re continuing to work through the repair programme on the Class 175 trains. As soon as each train is repaired and passes the safety checks, it is brought back into passenger service."