Minister 'very hopeful' Shropshire's direct rail link will clear final hurdle
A senior Government minister has said he is "very hopeful" the final hurdle will be cleared to pave the way for the return of a direct rail link from Shropshire to London.
Virgin announced the link would form part of a renewed franchise agreement yesterday. It now needs to gain approval from the Office of Rail Regulation - but Rail Minister Stephen Hammond said he could not see that being a problem.
Speaking during a visit to Shrewsbury train station yesterday, he said: "It still has to be formally signed off by the Office of Rail Regulation, but we are very hopeful it will be this time.
"We don't envisage encountering the same problems as we had last time.
"This is merely an extension to the running service that is already there. It's not like we need to create extra paths or anything."
Under the plans, Shrewsbury would have two services in each direction Monday to Saturday and one service in each direction on Sunday. All services will also run through Telford Central and Wellington train stations.
Monday to Saturday services will leave Shrewsbury at 6.39am and 3.24pm with return services leaving London Euston at 10.23am and 6.23pm.
On Sunday, a single service will leave Shrewsbury at 3.20pm and return from London at 7pm.
Mr Hammond said: "What we're doing is to put on trains, or rather, the franchisee will be putting on trains which actually are at good times for commuting.
"If you are a businessman who needs to get to London for the day there will be a service that gets you into Central London just after 9am and leaves Central London at 6.30pm, so you'll be back in Telford by about 8.30pm.
"Those are good services, those are good times, they are sensible for business."
As part of the deal, Virgin said there would be "significant improvements" for customers with the introduction of free superfast WiFi, more seats and new services.
Virgin Trains previously lost out to FirstGroup in the battle for a new 13-year West Coast franchise, but the process was scrapped by the Department for Transport due to errors in the bidding process. It resulted in a temporary deal allowing Virgin to run the West Coast service.
Virgin is paying £430 million to the Government over the course of the contract, which at £155.3 million a year is a 58 per cent increase on the £98.1 million a year paid in the current short-term management contract.
