Right now, there are no services from the constituency of north Shropshire direct to London. In fact, there hasn’t been for 13 years – but that could all change in the next year or two, thanks to proposals for new services between the Midlands and the capital.
Wrexham, Shropshire and Midlands Railway (WSMR) is a new ‘open access’ rail operator hoping to launch new services from Wrexham to London Euston via Gobowen, Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Nuneaton and Milton Keynes. WSMR has submitted plans for up to five trains per day in each direction, with four on Sundays. If everything goes to plan, the operator wants to launch the route sometime in 2025.
In November, Helen Morgan, the north Shropshire MP, said: ‘One of the main issues on the doorstep here in north Shropshire is the lack of decent public transport links. A new link between Wrexham, Gobowen, Shrewsbury and London is very good news, and will bring an important improvement to our links with other areas.
‘This is also an exciting prospect for Oswestry, which is set to be connected to Gobowen by rail in the coming years.
‘They could see the benefits of additional services to Shrewsbury and Wrexham as well as to London Euston, making the case for reopening the line even stronger.’
What are open-access trains?
Open-access trains basically run independently. They don’t receive any subsidies from the government and have to apply to run on individual routes. Existing open-access services include Hull Trains, the Heathrow Express and Grand Central. A proposed quicker route between Sheffield and London hopes to be open access. And for comparison, this new direct service between Oxford and Bristol will be under a franchise.
Did you see that the location of Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2024 has been revealed?
Plus: This British train journey is officially one of the most scenic in the world.
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out UK newsletter for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.