So, farewell Wrexham & Shropshire trains...

Shropshire's direct rail link to London will end today with the last train due to travel along the route tonight - but campaigners have vowed the battle to save it will not end with the last journey and their fight will continue.

Passengers were making their final journeys to and from the capital on the Wrexham & Shropshire service to mark the end of the link after three years.

The final train to the capital is due to leave Shrewsbury at 2.07pm, with the last service along the route due to return to the town at 9.44pm.

But politicians said they would not stop the fight until a service to the capital is reinstated.

Today Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury, said: "All the Shropshire MPs are working cross-party to try to ensure a direct service is reinstated as soon as possible. The battle will continue."

It came as Adrian Shooter, the chairman of service provider Wrexham & Shropshire, spoke of his sadness at the end of the service. It is said to have made a loss of £2.8 million last year. He said it was a "very, very sad day" and praised the service's 55 employees, for helping it secure the highest ratings in the UK for passenger satisfaction in a study by Passenger Focus this week.

"It's so sad that on Tuesday evening I had to go and tell them that most unfortunately we had reached an unavoidable decision that we had to close the company," he said.

"As you would expect, we are doing everything we possibly can to find people alternative jobs."

"All the other rail companies have rallied around to provide a list of vacancies and we will make sure our people are aware of this. They will still be our employees until we settle them in another job or give them their redundancy pay."

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