MP Mark Pritchard secures talks on direct Shrewsbury to London rail link
Shropshire's MPs will meet with rail regulators later this month in the ongoing campaign to restore a direct rail link to London.
The meeting with the Office of the Rail Regulator has been secured by Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard and will take place shortly after Easter.
The ORR will have the final say over plans to restore the link between Shrewsbury and London.
The county's MPs met with officials from Virgin Trains and Network Rail in February to discuss the issue when parties agreed in principle to introduce a twice-daily service from December.
Trains would leave Shrewsbury at 6.39am and 3.24pm each day, with services going from London to Shropshire at 10.23am and 6.23pm.
Mr Pritchard said: "The Government have given the go-ahead for the new service, and Virgin Trains have agreed to drive the trains, but the final decision still rests with the Office of the Rail Regulator.
"I will be inviting all Shropshire MPs to this very important meeting and making the case for Shropshire."
Mr Pritchard added on Twitter: "All new rail franchise contracts must contain minimum standard clauses for telecoms and internet connectivity - passengers deserve much better."
Virgin is only running the West Coast Main Line on an interim basis with a decision on who will hold the long-term franchise for the route yet to be decided – meaning there is uncertainty of the long-term future of any potential Shropshire-London service.
A Network Rail report that examined the prospect of a Shrewsbury-London Euston service and other new routes on the West Coast Main Line said there would be capacity for additional off-peak trains on the route once improvement work took place.
But the report said Network Rail had "low confidence" in its ability to add any extra services along the line should the controversial High Speed 2 (HS2) scheme come to fruition and take up capacity at Euston.
The rail company said it was instead working on a new timetable to allow passengers to travel easily between Euston Station and Shrewsbury, Telford and Wellington for December.
The move came after more than 3,000 people signed a Shropshire Star petition calling for the link to be established.
