Additional carriages for busy commuter services to and from Birmingham Snow Hill

Thursday, 4 July 2019

Changes will be made to of some of West Midlands Railway’s busiest commuter trains to and from Birmingham from next week, following feedback from passengers.

The biggest timetable shake-up in over 10 years has been good news for many rail passengers with direct services to more destinations, faster journeys on many routes and more seats to and from Birmingham everyday. Further changes to be introduced from Tuesday 9 July will see additional carriages operating some of the busiest peak time services to and from Birmingham Snow Hill.

West Midlands Railway will be reallocating the number of carriages on the 1713 departure from Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester Shrub Hill from Tuesdays to Fridays. A five carriage train will be used to operate this service – an increase from the four carriage train used since the timetable change in May.

The 1703 and 1723 departures either side of this service saw an increase in carriages with the new timetable, meaning that an additional four carriages now operate between Birmingham and Stourbridge between 1700 and 1730 on weekdays, compared to before the timetable change.

Another improvement comes with the reintroduction of five carriages on the 0708 departure from Leamington Spa to Birmingham from Tuesdays to Fridays.

The train operator will be providing the additional capacity by reallocating carriages from other services, based on passenger counts and demand elsewhere on the Snow Hill lines.*

Richard Brooks, customer experience director for West Midlands Railway, said: “The new timetable introduced in May represented the biggest change for over a decade. While passengers have been adjusting to the new timetable, we appreciate that some services have been incredibly busy. We have been working hard to see what further improvements could be made and we are confident we now have a solution for our passengers.

“In response to particular feedback about the 0708 service from Leamington Spa to Birmingham and the 1713 service from Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester, we didn’t want to make any rushed decisions that may have had unintended consequences elsewhere on the network. We have therefore spent a number of weeks assessing what could be done to reallocate some carriages and we believe our solution will deliver consistent performance and benefit passengers on some of our busiest evening services.

“We want to thank all our passengers for their patience while the new timetable has been bedding in and we will continue to look at making further refinements to improve our timetable going forward.”

ENDS

For further information on this release, call our press office on 03300 955150 or email [email protected]

Notes to editors

*The following changes will be made to train formations from Tuesdays to Fridays from Tuesday 9 July onwards to accommodate additional carriages some of the busiest West Midlands Railway commuter services to and from Birmingham Snow Hill:

Morning peak: Tuesday – Friday

• 0708 Leamington Spa to Kidderminster: 5 carriages (previously 4 carriages)
• 0741 Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham Snow Hill: 3 carriages (previously 6 carriages)
• 0749 Kidderminster to Stratford-upon-Avon: 4 carriages (previously 3 carriages)
• 0807 Whitlocks End to Kidderminster: 5 carriages (previously 4 carriages)

Evening peak: Tuesday – Friday

• 1623 Kidderminster to Stratford-upon-Avon: 4 carriages (previously 3 carriages)
• 1627 Stourbridge Junction to Dorridge: 3 carriages (previously 6 carriages)
• 1646 Dorridge to Worcester Shrub Hill: 5 carriages (previously 4 carriages)
• 1657 Stourbridge Junction to Stratford-upon-Avon: 4 carriages (previously 3 carriages)
• 1728 Dorridge to Worcester shrub Hill: 3 carriages (previously 6 carriages)

About West Midlands Trains

West Midlands Trains operates both West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway services.

• London Northwestern Railway services operate between Liverpool and Birmingham, and on the West Coast mainline to and from London Euston.

• West Midlands Railway services operate to destinations across the West Midlands via Birmingham New Street.

For more information on these services visit westmidlandsrailway.co.uk or londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk

The West Midlands Trains franchise started on 10 December 2017 and will run until 2025/26.

West Midlands Trains operates 1,300 services a day, manages 150 stations and provides over 70 million passenger journeys a year. Over the course of the franchise, West Midlands Trains will be investing £1 billion into the rail network to deliver new trains, improved routes and station upgrades. This will include 400 new train carriages across the network and space for an extra 85,000 passengers into Birmingham and London at peak times.

The franchise is a joint venture between Abellio (70.1% share) and East Japan Railway Company / Mitsui & Co., Ltd (29.9% share in a 50:50 split). Abellio is the international passenger transport subsidiary of the Dutch national railway company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen. In the UK, Abelllio operates ScotRail and Greater Anglia train services, Merseyrail services in a joint venture with Serco and buses through Abellio London. For more information visit www.abellio.com

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