Decision day looming for West Midlands Trains

A deadline for West Midlands Trains to improve its service in the region or potentially risk losing its franchise is looming.

In December Andy Street, mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority demanded the rail operator make drastic improvements by January 31 or he would write to the Department for Transport asking for them to be stripped of the franchise.

Attacking the company, which runs direct trains between Stratford and Birmingham, Mr Street said he had lost faith in West Midlands Trains, describing the service offered as woeful.

Mr Street’s criticisms also received the backing of Stratford’s Shakespeare Line Promotion Group.

At the time, West Midlands Trains admitted its timetable, introduced in May, had not worked, but also blamed a number of other factors outside of the company’s control, which had affected services.

Julian Edwards, appointed managing director of West Midlands Trains this month, said: “Our performance during the second half of last year was simply unacceptable. I’ve put in place a clear plan of improvements which is already having an impact.

“The number of trains arriving on time has increased by 29 per cent since Christmas with cancellations down by 39 per cent. Overall performance has increased by over 10 per cent.

“There is more to do, however, and we are making further timetable changes to improve performance, starting next month – with a commitment to only use skip-stopping as a last-resort and under extreme circumstances.

“This year we will also introduce brand-new trains on the network while working with the Mayor on reopening stations on the Camp Hill and Wolverhampton-Walsall lines.”

Mr Edwards added that passengers will receive a 10 per cent discount on their travel this summer as compensation for recent poor performance.

The discount will apply to the walk-up fares for every Off-Peak journey made on West Midlands Railway (WMR) and London Northwestern Railway (LNR) services throughout July and August.

A further announcement regarding compensation linked to holiday periods will be made in due course.

The Herald contacted Andy Street’s office this week, who confirmed a decision on whether the mayor would ask for the franchise to be removed from West Midlands Trains would be announced next week.