Big investment to significantly improve train services, says Shrewsbury MP

Daniel Kawczynski met West Midlands Trains Ltd to discuss the "much needed" investment earmarked for the county.

The news comes after the rail company promised to invest £1 billion for passengers travelling between the north west, the Midlands and London, including new carriages and additional services to alleviate congestion on a variety of lines.

It also says carriages will be fully refurbished and supported by a £160 million investment in 80 brand new diesel carriages by 2020 and there will be regular all-day, half-hourly services between Birmingham and Shrewsbury, from Monday to Saturday, by December this year, in addition to the hourly service currently provided by Arriva Trains Wales.

Mr Kawczynski said he has been "very disappointed" with the current train services.

"I've been very disappointed with trains in the past because of overcrowding and poor conditions on the trains and the lack of frequency between Shrewsbury and Birmingham and other parts of the country," he said.

"West Midlands Trains Ltd has given us a list of some of the investments they're going to make.

Significant improvements

"The most important thing is rather than every hour, trains between Shrewsbury and Birmingham are going to be every 30 minutes, which is good.

"We've been challenging them about the carriages. I sometimes take photographs as there can be up to 30 people standing at peak times, so that's very bad.

"We're expecting significant improvements."

Mr Kawczynski and Ludlow's MP Philip Dunne met West Midlands Trains to discuss the investment.

There will be a new hourly Sunday service between Shrewsbury and Birmingham and a service quality regime to improve the quality of stations, trains and customer service for passengers.

Every day there will be an extra 20,000 rush-hour seats for passengers in Birmingham, and investment of £700m in 400 new carriages, free Wi-Fi on all trains by the end of 2019 and spending of £13m into developing existing staff over the course of the franchise.

The company says it also plans to employ more than 900 apprentices over the course of the franchise.

The company, a joint venture between Dutch company Abellio, and Japanese duo East Japan Railway Company and Mitsui & Co – was awarded the rights to the West Midlands railway network in December last year.

West Midlands Trains took over from London Midlands.