Shropshire LEP welcomes moves to reintroduce London rail link

BUSINESS leaders in Shropshire have welcomed moves to reintroduce direct rail services between the county and London.

The county has been without a direct link since the Wrexham & Shropshire service to Marylebone, run by Chiltern Railways owner DB Schenker was abandoned in January 2011 following a £2.8m loss.

Hopes were raised last year when the Department for Transport announced that as part of its decision to award the West Coast Main Line franchise to FirstRail, a service from Shrewsbury to London would be reintroduced from 2014.

However, these hopes were dashed following the fiasco over the award of the contract which saw the DfT having to cancel the agreement and retender and the FirstRail bid was deemed unsustainable.

The move has left the WCML service being operated by Virgin on behalf of the DfT for another two years while the situation is resolved but in the meantime, Shropshire is still without it rail link to the capital. This leaves most commuters having to travel to either Stafford or Wolverhampton to get the connections they need.

Hopes have now been raised that a service could once again be introduced. The optimism follows a meeting between delegates from the Strategic Rail Group including Shropshire Council, Telford and Wrekin Council and Shropshire Business Chamber with Virgin Trains.
Virgin has applied to Network Rail and the DfT to run two direct trains a day from Shrewsbury to London Euston.

The company said the move would depend on there being sufficient capacity on the WCML network. It expects to hear next month if the services can begin.

If permission is granted then the services could be operating from December.

Dr Geoffrey Davies, chairman of the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership, which is a member of the Strategic Rail Group, welcomed the move.

He said: “I’m delighted to see that Virgin has responded to our repeated pleas that a direct rail service from Shropshire to London be included in its proposals for the operation of the West Coast franchise.

“If approved, this service from London Euston to Shrewsbury and vice versa would be a real boost not only to our visitor economy, but also for the businesses which are based here.

“Good transport links are essential to ensure we can attract businesses which want to invest in the Marches and create the sustainable jobs which are so urgently needed.”

The move could also improve Virgin’s chances of securing the WCML contract when the franchise is eventually retendered.