West Midlands Railway and London Northwest Railway (both run by West Midlands Trains) are urging passengers to check train times ahead of a major timetable change later this week.
From Sunday 21 May WMR will make a number of changes to its services, particularly impacting routes via Birmingham Snow Hill and including destinations such as Worcester, Kidderminster and Stratford-upon-Avon. Changes include:
- Train times on all routes via Birmingham Snow Hill will change to create what the operator calls “a more consistent and resilient timetable”.
- An increased level of service will be introduced at Small Heath and Tyseley.
- Longer turnaround times will be introduced at Kidderminster to improve recovery from delays, which the operator believes will reduce the possibility of short-notice cancellations.
- Four stations in Warwickshire – Danzey, Wood End, Wootton Wawen and The Lakes – will no longer be classified as ‘request stops'
- In response to customer feedback, the last weekday train to Hednesford from Birmingham New Street will depart later, at 11.22pm instead of 11pm currently
The changes on the Snow Hill Lines have been made in conjunction with Chiltern Railways and passengers on routes served by both operators are advised to check their connections carefully.
Changes on London Northwestern include:
- Following passenger feedback, two additional services to London Euston will call at Bushey on weekday mornings.
- Sunday train times will change at all stations on the Abbey Line between Watford Junction and St Albans Abbey.
- The 17:56 weekday departure from London Euston to Northampton will be formed of twelve carriages instead of the current eight.
Additionally, London Northwestern Railway will withdraw First Class accommodation from all its services from Sunday 21 May. This will provide an extra 4.7 million seats for everybody at a time when LNR is welcoming more passengers back to the railway.
For more information on the May timetable changes, visit the West Midlands Railway website. or the London Northwestern website.
Jonny Wiseman, WMR customer experience director, said: “In recent years services on our Snow Hill Lines have not been as reliable as we would like and one of the primary reasons for this has been a lack of recovery time built into the timetable.
“The significant changes we are making will improve reliability and has been designed to create an evenly-spaced, robust and better-performing timetable for all our passengers.
“These changes have been several years in the making and I urge our customers to check their new timetables carefully to make sure they don't get left behind.”
“Timetables will be changing all across the country on Sunday so I urge our customers to check their train times to make sure they don't get left behind.
“We'll also be removing First Class accommodation from our services due to changing customer demand, so any passengers holding First Class tickets for journeys after Sunday should visit their local ticket office for a full refund.”
