Fresh hopes for Shropshire to London rail link as talks open
Virgin Trains today pledged to make a direct rail link between London and Shropshire a reality as it opened talks with rail bosses.
It said it is discussing ways to address issues with the West Coast Main Line that were used as a reason for the link being rejected.
The route appeared to be postponed until December 2014 at the earliest when the Office of Rail Regulation last week backed Network Rail's controversial decision to veto the proposals.
It said that the West Coast Main Line route is already too busy and that problems with services on that line needed to be tackled before any direct link between London, Telford and Shropshire could be considered.
Damien Henderson of Virgin Trains today said talks had opened with Network Rail to address punctuality issues on the line.
He said: "We do want to bid again and we are working towards addressing the concerns to improve performance and reliability. We are still hopeful we can put these services in place in place and are now working with Network Rail to address the performance problems that caused them to make the decision they did. We do still want to put both services in place for Shropshire.
"It is an aspiration the people and businesses of Shropshire have and we have wanted to support them and the Shropshire economy. There is quite a lot of hard work that needs to take place."
Under the Virgin proposals, two trains would have run each way between Shrewsbury and London Euston every day, stopping at Wellington and Telford and going via Stafford.
The ORR said that with existing punctuality problems on the line, approving a new route between Shrewsbury and London, as well as similar service between Blackpool and the capital, would make an "unacceptable situation worse".
The decision letter said if improvements can be made, the ORR would be prepared to reconsider allowing the routes – but not before December 2014 at the earliest.
