Reduced services over festivities as new train timetables revealed
New train timetables will be launched next weekend with rail companies warning of reduced services over Christmas.
Train operators review their timetables every year. Permanent changes coming into effect in the West Midlands from next Sunday will see an extra Virgin service from Wolverhampton to London at 7.25am, meaning passengers no longer have to change at Birmingham New Street.
Services will also stop calling at Watford Junction and will instead go to Milton Keynes.
One train an hour between Wolverhampton and Birmingham is also being axed as part of a merging of the Euston to Wolverhampton route with the London to Scotland service.
Virgin said the route was well-served by other trains. The changes free up space for a direct service between Coventry and Scotland. That will mean services such as the northbound one arriving at Wolverhampton at 37 minutes past the hour will continue, and the same will be for the southbound service at 33 minutes past the hour, which will pick people up in Wolverhampton and carry on to Euston.
London Midland has said its services at three minutes and 33 minutes past the hour from Snow Hill to Kidderminster would no longer call at Langley Green, Old Hill or Lye but would instead go to Hagley and Blakedown. The 25-past and 55 minutes past trains from Kidderminster to Snow Hill will also call at Blakedown and Hagley.
The 23-minutes past and 53-minutes past Snow Hill to Stourbridge trains will also call at Langley Green, Old Hill and Lye from December 8.
There will also be reduced services over Christmas, when demand from passengers is less. Work on the rebuild of Birmingham's New Street station will result in an hourly London Midland service on December 27 and 28 between Wolverhampton and Walsall and between Birmingham and Liverpool.
The firm will also run an hourly service between Wolverhampton and Walsall, via Birmingham, on Christmas Eve, December 30 and December 31 and a Sunday service across all its lines on New Year's Day.
The last services on Christmas Eve are cancelled on the Birmingham to Shrewsbury and Crewe to Euston lines while there will be fewer services after 1pm on the Birmingham to Liverpool route.
