Plans finally in for direct link between Shropshire and London
The long-awaited direct rail link between Shropshire and London could be up-and-running by the end of the year as plans have now been submitted to the government, it was revealed today.
Virgin Trains has detailed the route between Shrewsbury and the capital and finally put forward its formal proposals to the Department for Transport in a major step forward for the scheme.
The West Coast Main Line operator hopes to have a response, as well as the green light for a separate application for track access rights, in the spring.
Virgin spokesman Jim Rowe said: "It's something we want to do, and fairly quickly. We have the franchise contract for another two years, but want to reinstate the services to Shrewsbury before that, and the earliest that could happen is December.
"We have put proposals to those two bodies, and it's our desire to start those services by this December."
He added: "The next stage is to get those authorisations, and we would hope to have them in early spring as we want to get the services up and running."
Under the proposals, two trains would run each way between Shrewsbury and London every day, stopping at Telford.
At present, they are expected to run outwards at 7.06am and 3.06pm, returning from the capital at 11.33am and 6.37pm.
As the track is not electrified, they would need to run as diesel trains – which had also been the intention of First Group, had it been allowed to keep the West Coast franchise amid confusion over the bidding process last year.
That franchise process is now mired in delay after a series of blunders by the Department of Transport.
