'I don't want anyone stood on a platform in the West Midlands waiting for a train that never turns up' - Transport Secretary delivers message of hope during Wolverhampton visit

Transport UK, the company that runs services across Shropshire, the Black Country and wider West Midlands, is preparing to hand over its services to the UK Government at 2am on Sunday (February 1).

West Midlands Trains, which runs the brands West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway, will transition to DfT Operator, the government-owned company established in 2018 with the aim of bringing all privately owned train operators into public ownership ahead of the creation of Great British Railways in 2027.

As part of her visit to the West Midlands Mrs Alexander spoke with local MPs including Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) and Sureena Brackenridge (Wolverhampton North East) and representatives from West Midlands Trains, and spoke of her desire to provide the region with a 'reliable, comfortable and affordable' rail service.

"It's a big day for the West Midlands with West Midlands Trains coming into public ownership this weekend," the Transport Secretary began. "We've already transferred a number of train operating companies around the country into public ownership and of course we promised to do that at the last General Election. This is the Labour Government delivering on a manifesto commitment.

"We have announced that we are freezing rail fares for the first time in 30 years and that means that people using season tickets, flexible season tickets, peak returns or off-peak returns will benefit.

"Fares have gone up by inflation, RPI plus one for the last couple of years, and this is a really significant intervention.

"We know how important an affordable train system is for the public, but we also know because of our experience elsewhere in the country that publicly-owned train companies are performing better when it comes to punctuality and the number of cancellations.

"I don't want anyone stood on a platform in the West Midlands waiting for a train that never turns up. I want people to have good, reliable, comfortable and affordable transport options with good information available to them.

"We'll have the added benefit that we will be saving up to £150m a year because we won't be paying that management fee to private companies who were, lets be honest, running a pretty appalling service over the last couple of years.

"It's caused a lot of frustration for people, and we want to improve that all over the country."

Working under the West Midlands Trains banner, London Northwestern Railway, which operates services between Liverpool and Birmingham and along the West Coast Main Line to and from London Euston, and West Midlands Railway, which serves destinations across the West Midlands via Birmingham New Street and Birmingham Snow Hill, became the fourth operator to enter public ownership under the government’s Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act.

And with more operators expected to move across at the end of their current contracts, Mrs Alexander accepted responsibility for ensuring the delivery of an improved, publicly-owned national rail service.

"We know that the travelling public have had to put up with years and years of delays, cancellations and frustrations, and that's why we're bringing those trains into public ownership, it's why we're setting up Great British Railways," the Transport Secretary said. "Ultimately as Secretary of State for Transport I will be held accountable for improving the rail service, and I'm not going to shy away from that, but it will be the day-to-day job of Great British Railways to build a railway that Britain can be proud of and a railway that Britain can rely on."

Ian McConnell, managing director of West Midlands Trains, said:  “We are proud to be one of the fastest-growing train operators in the country with millions of passengers travelling on London Northwestern Railway (LNR) and West Midlands Railway (WMR) services every month. We’ve introduced more than 100 new trains as well as upgrading our depots and station facilities. 

"We’re looking forward to opening five brand new stations later this year and we’re also rolling out ‘Pay-As-You-Go’ ticketing across 75 locations to enable seamless tap-in, tap-out travel for our customers. Public ownership is an exciting opportunity to build on this success through a strong culture of collaboration and integration with the wider family of publicly owned operators.

“Together, we can drive performance by sharing best practice and accelerating innovation and continue to deliver even better journeys for our passengers across the LNR and WMR networks. We are now a step further on the journey to Great British Railways – a railway that we can be proud of and one that benefits the passengers and communities we serve.”