Firms urged to work towards Shropshire-London rail deal

In an official response to the handing in of a 3,000-strong Shropshire Star petition, the Department for Transport pledged to strongly support the campaign and said they recognised the "very strong" groundswell of opinion locally.

The Star's online and paper petition, was presented to Parliament last Friday by Shrewsbury & Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski.

He called on the Government to put pressure on Network Rail to make linking London to Shrewsbury, Telford and Wellington a reality.

Mr McLoughlin today responded to the concerns raised in the petition and said: "The Department continues to strongly support the introduction of the new direct service from London Euston to Shrewsbury.

"The department recognises the very strong local support for the introduction of this new service.

"The pressure remains on Network Rail to improve performance and also to work with Virgin Trains and the Office of Rail Regulation on this important matter."

The transport secretary added: "I continue to take a very close interest in this matter and I have encouraged the rail industry to work together to secure the introduction of this new and important service to Shrewsbury. I understand that Virgin Trains is making an application for the access rights to operate this service from May 2014."

Mr Kawczynski also raised the issue of the direct rail link with the Minister of State responsible for the railways during a Parliamentary question session this week.

Simon Burns MP, Minister of State for Transport, said: "My honourable friend makes a valid point. That is one of the reasons that high-speed rail is so important: it is capacity, capacity, capacity, to echo a former Prime Minister on another subject."