Rail passengers in the Black Country trying to reach relatives over Christmas and New Year will face more disruption than usual because of engineering work.
Busier routes around the region will see trains replaced by buses as part of an £8.6 billion programme of work by Network Rail to replace outdated track along the West Coast London Euston to Glasgow route.
There will also be no London Midland trains on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and Saturday services will operate on other days over the period.
London Midland managing director Steve Banaghan said: “All train operators including London Midland are accommodating a significant programme of engineering work across the rail network in the coming weeks.
“Although this work is vital to ongoing network improvements, it will create some short-term disruption for passengers.”
Meanwhile passengers using Arriva CrossCountry services are being urged to book in advance for any journeys between December 22 and January 1.
Information of the changes is available at www.londonmidland.com on 0845 6024277 through National Rail Enquiries on www.nationalrail.co.uk or telephone 0845 7484950.
7 Comments
Well….
It just gets better!
In a statement issued a few weeks ago London Midland had taken over Central Trains - to ease conjestion and travel delays! From that date the services between Kidderminster and Birmingham have only got worse - with delays, over crowding and generally poor quality of trains in and out at peak times!
As now the weather is getting even colder i can see the issues of delayed and overcrowding getting worse. With people finishing their “Late” Christmas shopping and travelling in to work to avoid condtions on the roads this should have been thought about by the people at the top who “Apparently” get paid to think about the bigger picture!!
Not happy!
What’s this guy above on about??
What does he expect around christmas time?? I feel London Midland are doing there best to regenerate the state of the system left by Centro.
Upgrading the lines can only be a good thing in the long run, there is never a short term fix, I bet he is a recruitment consultant or something!?!?!?
Christmas time is notorious for bad weather, queues and general dissaray until the big day arrives….and also wearing your inlaws pants…!!i agree with tom r
lay of the public transport system, and give them some chrismas cheer…..bah humbug!
I agree with the 2 parties above, can’t these narrow minded people see the bigger picture…. think outside the box Stourbridge Chris.
Because of the upgrading of the tracks, etc now, the future looks bright for commuters accross the region.
My only complaint about the trains currently is the sight of people ’schoolboy wee-ing’ which is a new craze which I hope doesn’t take off. Stourbridge Chris strikes me as a ‘School boy wee-er’…. Do me a favour… pull up your trousers…
Just because a new Operator has taken over the services the staff and rolling stock were never going to change.Also no timetable changes have taken place either so unsure how things have got worse. I use the Kidderminster-Birmingham service each day and have seen no alteration in vehicles,cramping etc(as was expected) What were you expecting Chris brand new gold plated trains?
As for engineering works over xmas.
This is surely vital if improvements are to be seen , and it makes sense to do so over the xmas period as not to impact on commuters.
Personally i think it is good to figures of 8.6bn being branded around in the hope future improvements will be seen.
There is no good reason for delaying travellers during the christmas season - as opposed to any other time of year. hasn’t anyone noticed the amount of people travelling home to their families and delivering Christmas presents? _ It’s not Father Christmas or elves that do it really. And who would be delayed in January? commuters on their way to work - why not? Whose sense of priorities are so perverted that they would value an extra hour in the office over kiddies one day in the whole year. It’s time London Midland and other train companies grew up - or we should take the franchise off them and renationalise and rationalise rail travel to OUR priorities.
d
The railways run on a profit basis…they’ll do engineering work when they’re least likely to make profit, which is over the Xmas period and school summer holidays.
Work commuters, college students and schoolkids make up nearly all the traffic.
Anybody expecting major changes from London Midland as opposed to Central Trains is crazy…same train staff, same trains, same station staff, same tracks, different senior management, same profit targets.
Prices will rise, trains won’t get longer or more comfortable for at least 2 years.
What’s the new boss like ?…Same as the old boss.