Rail company announces extra trains and new routes

West Midlands rail passengers are set to benefit from a new timetable being introduced which promises to bring extra trains and more direct services to series of new destinations, including three trains an hour operating to and from London Euston.

West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway will introduce new timetables this May which will include more direct services operating between major cities, airports and transport hubs across the rail network.

Many of these services will operate via Birmingham New Street, connecting London Euston to destinations such as Wolverhampton, Walsall, Stoke-on-Trent and Liverpool.

These new routes will enable three trains an hour to operate to and from London Euston every day – with more services being made up of eight car trains.

Journey times from Birmingham on the West Coast Mainline will also have reduced waiting time at Northampton, improving the journey time to/from the capital.

Electric trains will be introduced on the Chase line, following the £100m electrification of the route between Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley. This will enable faster trains to operate, with more carriages and extra seats for passengers.From Walsall, there will be an hourly service to London Euston and a half hourly service to Birmingham Airport from Monday to Saturday.

There will also be earlier and later services to and from many stations, with frequent services operating on many routes later into the evenings.

Some of the routes that will benefit from these improvements are:

The last evening trains to operate between Birmingham New Street and Coventry will depart between 20 and 45 minutes later, with an additional 0040 departure from Birmingham New Street on weekdays.

On the Cross City North, four trains an hour will continue to the end of the line at Lichfield Trent Valley throughout the day. There will be the introduction of a new 2340 departure from Birmingham New Street to Four Oaks on weekdays, and a 2325 departure on Saturdays.

Services calling at local stations to Wolverhampton will see an additional train from Birmingham at 2338 from Monday to Saturday.

There will be new Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester Shrub Hill departures until 2300 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Richard Brooks, customer experience director for West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway, said: “The timetable improvements being introduced in May will bring a range of benefits to passengers, with more direct services to destinations across our network and improved capacity on some of our busiest services. The changes we are making across the West Midlands this Spring will open up new opportunities for passengers to travel by train for both work and leisure – with additional earlier, later and weekend services making rail travel a fantastic option for getting around the region.

“However, this isn’t the whole story. We will also have a further timetable change in two years time, where passengers will see further benefits from the introduction of new trains onto the network, which when fully operational, will increase capacity by 25%.”

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close