West Midlands Railway

[Stu]

From 10th December, a new company West Midlands Trains Ltd (which is a joint venture between Abellio, East Japan Railway Company and Mitsui & Co Ltd) will run the region's rail services under new franchise name West Midlands Railway.

Trains running only in the West Midlands area will be jointly managed by the Department for Transport (DfT) and West Midlands Rail (WMR), a consortium of 16 local councils.

Changes to customers on day one will be minimal and it may take some time to rebrand all the trains in the area, however, a £1 billion package of investment has been promised for the region and will be delivered over the next few years.

Other benefits for passengers in the franchise deal include: 

•     More trains between Birmingham and Shrewsbury with two services per hour from December 2018
•     A regular two trains per hour service between Birmingham and Rugeley via the Chase Line from December 2018
•    A new, direct hourly service between Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent from December 2018 providing much needed additional capacity
•     An extension of Cross-City line services from Longbridge to Bromsgrove
•     A new hourly shuttle between Leamington Spa and Coventry serving the new station at Kenilworth
•     Two morning and two evening rush hour direct services between Walsall and London from December 2018, helping to unlock economic growth in the region
•    More Sunday services on the Cross-City line with the number of trains per hour between Longbridge and Birmingham doubling from two per hour to four in December 2018, and then increasing to six in May 2021
•     Increased Sunday services on the Snow Hill line with the number of trains per hour between Snow Hill and Stourbridge Junction increasing from two to six
•     A new Sunday service between Birmingham and Shrewsbury from December 2018, and a second train per hour introduced in May 2021

Read more: https://www.networkwestmidlands.com/ways-to-travel/train/west-midlands-railway/



The new website will be at https://www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk and will be operational from Sunday 10th December

[Tony]

At Snow Hill on Monday there will be a few freebies about from 07:00 and the first new liveried 172 is due to arrive at 11:17

[Ian Hardy]

10th December is Sunday and not Monday, that is 11th.

[Stu]

10th December is Sunday and not Monday, that is 11th.

Thanks for spotting, that was the only bit I didn't copy and paste from the NWM website article, now corrected!

[Stuharris 6360]

What a day for West Midlands Railways to take over the new franchise!!

[Bob]

Im hoping theyre rnning tomorrow morning!

[Rob H]

At Snow Hill on Monday there will be a few freebies about from 07:00 and the first new liveried 172 is due to arrive at 11:17

@Tony That's the 10:16 Worcester Foregate Street - Dorridge working isn't it? :)

[Tony]

@Tony That's the 10:16 Worcester Foregate Street - Dorridge working isn't it? :)

No, special empty stock working from Tyseley

[Rob H]

No, special empty stock working from Tyseley

OK Thank You @Tony

[Tony]

Here's 172339 heading back to Tyseley after the event

http://wmbusphotos.com/Trains/class172/172339.html

[BK63 YWP]

Has it been refurbished inside with different coloured colours? I'm expecting them to be purple

[V89MOA]

Couldn't even afford to paint that grubby looking yellow semi circle above the windscreen for the big launch?! Then again they can't even afford seats for the new Cross city trains so, times must be hard...

[Tony]

Couldn't even afford to paint that grubby looking yellow semi circle above the windscreen for the big launch?! Then again they can't even afford seats for the new Cross city trains so, times must be hard...
[/quote ]

What?  The new trains will provide a big increase in the number of seats over the current service.

[Stuharris 6360]

Really don't know what all the fuss is about, just the same people (except those at the top) under a different name.

Can they really put an end to all the problems that London Midland had, doubt it, once all the hype is over it will settle back down to what we have had in the past.

Yes Millions has been promised in investment, but the first new trains are not due for 2 years so the new paintwork is just to disguise the old trains.

Plus rumour has it that the new trains will be D O O, so wait for all the strikes and overtime bans to happen.

[Bob]

Admittedly the weather isnt great but punctuality on the Chase Line has been horrific this morning and yesterday the busiest 7.57 4 car working was cancelled!