West Midlands Railway

[BlackCountryBusSpotter]

How can 350s operate the Shrewsbury service?  The 196s don't need to be line tested, they have been operating all Shrewsbury services for months

Oh I know I originally thought it was just Walsall to Wolverhampton every hour with a train extended to Birmingham. I then thought the Shrewsbury Service replaced one of these, I wasn't aware that it was just a Shrewsbury Service. Last I heard the Crewe/Stoke to Brum 350's were using the line, so I thought they were going to operate it. There has been that many changes and the Station isn't anywhere near completion yet I haven't kept up. So I assume 196's will run on the line,  and I meant the 196's needed tested on the Wolverhampton to Walsall Line I assume they would be cleared but don't all trains have to be tested on lines. 

[mikestone]

172s are not cleared north of Galton Jcn.

[Solo1]

What was coaches doing at the side of moor st station tonight 

[BK63 YWP]

What was coaches doing at the side of moor st station tonight

Rail replacement services for Chiltern due to issues last night caused by signalling issues 

[mikestone]

Interestingly the 06.18 from Wolves has a VAR schedule to use 5B instead of 4C - but only on Tuesday.
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Following the working through it appears to end at Soho, so is a different turn the rest of the week, or a different unit?

[Dom]

Interestingly the 06.18 from Wolves has a VAR schedule to use 5B instead of 4C - but only on Tuesday.
;
Following the working through it appears to end at Soho, so is a different turn the rest of the week, or a different unit?

The unit that starts the day on the 0618 ends at Soho with a fresh unit coming off Soho about 22:25 to form the 22:41 BHM-WVH.

[Tony]

730018 did the honours of being the first 730 into service in this area
730018 (wmbusphotos.com)

[mikestone]

730007  today - on the 12.48 from Wolves on departure from Smethwick Rolfe Street started to announce and display Perry Barr as the next stop!
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I'm guessing incorrect GPS location?
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At New St correctly showing Duddeston.
'
Interesting screen display showing seating availability in each car.

[Roy]

Realtime Trains is now showing the changes to Stourbridge line services from June.  

Services terminating at Kidderminster will stop at Langley Green, Old Hill and Lye rather than Hagley and Blakedown.

Services terminating at Worcester will stop at Hagley and Blakedown rather than Langley Green, Old Hill and Lye.

Stourbridge Town branch services will depart from Stourbridge Junction at 00, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 with departures from Stourbridge Town at 05, 15, 25, 35, 45 and 55.

Although Saturday services have not been updated yet, the 2116 service from Snow Hill to Worcester will be withdrawn and replaced by a service at 2233 from Snow Hill to Worcester.
  

[mikestone]

Thanks - I hadn't spotted the change in stopping patterns.
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Saturday service is in now - its actually 22.31, the 22.03 from Dorridge extended to give better spacing.

[Tony]

It now looks like 730s will eventually take of the Rugeley Line, but not until after all the cross-city has changed over

[BK63 YWP]

Thanks - I hadn't spotted the change in stopping patterns.
;
Saturday service is in now - its actually 22.31, the 22.03 from Dorridge extended to give better spacing.

I'm happy the 2231 is back, the 2300 most Saturdays have been full and standing. It will help when the Christmas market returns.

Also the 2 car Leamington Spa train weekday mornings that pass through BSW at 0700 will start at BSW and do Leamington and back. The Stourbridge Junction to Snow Hill part is discontinued.

Time to get the Langley Green, Old Hill and Lye passengers used to getting the Kidderminster service and Hagley and Blakedown passengers used to getting the Worcester again! 

The change that I would of liked to see would of been the last Leamington Spa service on Saturday to have begun at Snow Hill instead of Moor Street. 

[Roy]

It was the Stourbridge Line User Group (SLUG) who instigated all of these changes.  It received a lot of complaints from people in Hagley and Blakedown about the loss of through services to Worcester and produced an alternative timetable that only changed stopping times at stations from Kidderminster to Langley Green, thus not conflicting with other services.  West Midlands Railway took the proposals on board and a thorough review of journey patterns proved that a lot more people travelled to Worcester from Hagley and Blakedown than from Langley Green, Old Hill and Lye.  SLUG also pressed for the retiming of Stourbridge Town services to better connect with the new main line timetable and for the reinstatement of a train at about 22:30 on Saturdays – and was happy to accept WMR's compromise of withdrawing the 21:16 service to get the unit back to Tyseley.  There are a couple of things on the table that SLUG will continue to campaign for – a later Saturday evening departure from Worcester (it used to be 22:44, it's now 22:12 which is too early) and the extension of two off-peak services to/from Foregate Street (they are now terminated at Shrub Hill to allow the set to be split in the morning and strengthened in the afternoon).  SLUG is also campaigning for better Sunday services and the reinstatement of a through service from Smethwick Galton Bridge to Birmingham International.
 
West Midlands Railway said at a recent meeting that it would be making sure that the changes are fully publicised as it will affect every station from Kidderminster to Langley Green (for instance Stourbridge Junction departure times change by about 5 minutes on every journey) and SLUG has offered its help.  The SLUG website and Facebook pages will be updated over the weekend with details of the changes, and members will be informed in its next newsletter next month.       

[Sh4318]

Sunday service enhancements are long overdue, the loss of a direct service between Smethwick Galton Bridge and Birmingham International perplexes me. Definitely makes more sense for the Kiddy terminators to call at Langley/Old Hill/Lye and for Hagley/Blakedown to have direct services to Worcester

[BK63 YWP]

Sunday service enhancements are long overdue, the loss of a direct service between Smethwick Galton Bridge and Birmingham International perplexes me. Definitely makes more sense for the Kiddy terminators to call at Langley/Old Hill/Lye and for Hagley/Blakedown to have direct services to Worcester

Doubt Sunday's will be enhanced due to it being ran on OT.