Direct Shropshire to London rail link 'could be in service by May'

Tony Miles, from Modern Railways magazine, said there was "increasing optimism" that the link between Shropshire and the capital could be re-instated.

He told BBC's Sunday Politics the service could be up and running by May 2014.

The previous service stopped almost three years ago, leaving Shropshire as the only county in England without a straight through train service to the capital.

Shropshire's MPs have been campaigning to get a link reinstated. More than 3,000 people signed a Shropshire Star petition calling for a new direct service, and editor Martin Wright was among the contributors to the BBC programme.

Mr Miles said: "There is increasing optimism I'm sensing. From December, Virgin will be slightly thinning out some of its other services between Birmingham and Wolverhampton and that should create some positive benefits in terms of capacity and performance which they are hoping they can trade off against bringing in these new services."

Network Rail had apparently scuppered Virgin plans for a new direct service by claiming there was not enough spare capacity in the timetable to allow for extra trains.

Mr Miles said any new service would need the public to use it in sufficient numbers to ensure it remained once timetables are rewritten in 2016. The last direct service to London folded three years ago after big losses by the Wrexham Shropshire Railway Company.

Shrewsbury and Atcham Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski and Labour MP for Telford David Wright both backed the campaign.

The Shropshire Star's petition was presented to Parliament by Mr Kawczynski who called on the Government to put pressure on Network Rail to make linking London with Shrewsbury, Telford and Wellington a reality.

In the House of Commons on September 5, he said the lack of the direct rail link "is of real detriment to businesses and individuals travelling to the capital".

Rail bosses also pledged to join the fight for a direct service. The Office of Rail Regulation said it will be putting pressure on Network Rail to make the improvements to the West Coast Main Line to allow the route to become a reality.