Scrapped: Key direct rail service from West Midlands to London is to end
The direct rail service connecting Shropshire to London will be scrapped in June due to falling passenger numbers and cuts in funding, the Express & Star can reveal.
The Department for Transport has confirmed that Avanti West Coast will be scrapping the service from June 2, after this newspaper obtained a leaked internal memo.
Direct services to the capital will instead depart from Birmingham New Street, while return trains will terminate at Wolverhampton on weekdays, and at Birmingham at weekends.
The company had pledged to increase direct rail connections to the capital when it took over the franchise in December 2019.
But a spokeswoman for the Department for Transport said falling passenger numbers meant the service was now losing £1.4 million a year.
"Changing travel patterns mean our railways aren’t generating the same revenues as they were before the [coronavirus] pandemic, and we can't ask taxpayers to maintain the historically high level of financial support for the industry indefinitely," she said.
The spokeswoman said the number of rail services between Shropshire and Wolverhampton would be increased to mitigate the loss of the direct link.
But she said the direct link could yet be reinstated if an application by Wrexham, Shropshire & Midlands Railway Company to run a rail service from Wrexham to London is given the go-ahead.
