New timetable includes later rail services between Shropshire and West Midlands
Later evening rail services will operate between Shropshire and the West Midlands from May.
Passengers across the county will benefit from extra carriages and services when West Midlands Railway introduces its new timetable.
The train operator is introducing a range of improvements this spring, including additional services and extra carriages between Shrewsbury, Telford, Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street.
Trains to Shrewsbury, run by West Midlands Railway, will depart from Birmingham until around 10.35pm on weekdays – around 20 minutes later than they currently do.
Transport for Wales currently runs a later service.
West Midlands Railway will also be introducing an hourly Sunday service on the route.
This will replace the current two-hourly service frequency on the line.
Sunday services will arrive into Birmingham New Street from 9.30am, with the final service departing just before 10pm.
From May 19, there will be two trains per hour on weekdays and Saturdays, between Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street.
The additional service that will operate each hour will call at Shrewsbury, Wellington, Telford, Shifnal, Codsall, Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street – reducing journey times for many passengers.
Additional carriages for the services will be brought to the route from the Chase line in Staffordshire, where £100m of electrification work has recently been completed.
Richard Brooks, customer experience director for West Midlands Railway, said: “The May timetable changes will bring benefits to passengers across our network.
"For passengers on the Shrewsbury line, the timetable enhancements being introduced this spring, will provide a more frequent service throughout the week, with more seats and better connectivity when travelling by train.
“However, this isn’t the whole story. We will also have a further timetable change in two years time, where passengers will see further benefits from the introduction of new trains onto the network, which when fully operational, will increase capacity by 25 per cent.”
For passengers travelling to catch trains from Penkridge, additional calls will be added to the Birmingham New Street to Liverpool Lime Street route, to give the station a half hourly service on weekdays and Saturdays.
The new timetable is now live on journey planning systems and can be found at westmidlandsrailway.co.uk
