Wrexham and Shropshire

History

Wrexham & Shropshire was formed in 2006 as a joint venture between John Laing plc and Renaissance Trains with the aim of operating rail passenger services between Wrexham and London Marylebone as an open access operator. Direct railway services from the area to London had been withdrawn by InterCity in 1992. Virgin Trains introduced a Shrewsbury to London Euston service in May 1998, it was withdrawn in 1999.

In October 2006 an evaluation service ran from London Marylebone to Wrexham General via the proposed route using the EWS Company Train.

In March 2007 Wrexham & Shropshire lodged an application with the Office of Rail Regulation for track access rights to operate services. In September 2007 Wrexham & Shropshire were granted access rights from December 2007 for a seven-year period.

In January 2008 John Laing's rail operations, including its shareholding in Wrexham & Shropshire, were sold to Deutsche Bahn. After this transaction the shareholders in Wrexham & Shropshire were DB Regio (50%), Renaissance Trains (36%) and John Laing (14%). Operations commenced on 28 April 2008. In September 2009, DB Regio took 100% ownership.

Route

From Wrexham General services ran via Ruabon, Chirk, Gobowen, Shrewsbury, Wellington, Telford Central, Cosford and Wolverhampton to Tame Bridge Parkway. From here services would proceed to Banbury and London Marylebone either via Stechford, Birmingham International and Coventry, or via Birmingham New Street and Solihull.

Because of a Moderation of Competition clause inserted into Virgin Trains' Track Access Contract with Network Rail by the government, Wrexham & Shropshire were not able to service a number of West Coast Main Line stations. Wrexham & Shropshire's Track Access Contract did not allow it to call at Birmingham New Street or Coventry, although the contract did allow it to could call at Wolverhampton and Birmingham International to pick up only on northbound services and set down only on southbound services, although Wrexham & Shropshire elected not to serve the latter.

Likewise to protect Chiltern Railways from revenue abstraction (even though it was owned by DB Regio), northbound services could only pick up and southbound services set down at Banbury. From December 2009 the Banbury restrictions were lifted and services also called at Leamington Spa. The Leamington Spa stops were removed in May 2010 after the Department for Transport found that revenue had been abstracted from Chiltern Railways.

Diversionary routes

During weekend engineering works, Wrexham & Shropshire services were frequently diverted. When the Wrexham to Shrewsbury line was closed services operated from Wrexham General to Shrewsbury via Chester and Crewe. When the Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton line was closed services reversed at Shrewsbury before reversing again at Crewe and proceeding via Stafford to Wolverhampton. When the line south of Birmingham was closed, services operated via the West Coast Main Line, Willesden Junction, Acton Junction and Ealing Broadway to South Ruislip before reversing to reach Marylebone. When the South Ruislip to Marylebone line was closed services would be diverted to London Paddington.

Timetable

Wrexham & Shropshire's initial timetable was for five trains per weekday between Wrexham and London with a journey time of approximately 4 hours, 15 minutes.

In March 2009 the weekday service was reduced to four trains per day with one cut back to only operate from London to Shrewsbury, Wrexham & Shropshire citing the economic downturn for the cancelled services.From July until September 2010 a fourth Saturday service was operated. In December 2010 the weekday service was reduced further to three per day, with insufficient customer demand being cited as the reason.

Rival service

In February 2008 Virgin Trains announced that it would operate a direct service between Wrexham General and Euston on a trial basis from December 2008, with a morning southbound and evening northbound service. Virgin's service operated from Wrexham General via Chester and Crewe to London Euston along the West Coast Main Line using Class 221 Super Voyagers, with a journey time of approximately 2½ hours, compared with Wrexham & Shropshire's average of 4 hours. As this was an extension of a Chester - Euston service, it did not serve stations in Shropshire or the West Midlands.

Threat of withdrawal of service

Arriva Trains Wales lodged an application with the Office of Rail Regulation to operate two daily trains from Aberystwyth to London Marylebone. The application was rejected in February 2010 because the Office of Rail Regulation was concerned about the financial viability of the service. DB Regio had stated that if the application was successful that it would cease funding Wrexham & Shropshire and operations would cease.

Rolling stock

Wrexham & Shropshire's original plans had envisaged using Class 158 or Class 170 diesel multiple units, but a lack of available stock saw the locomotive hauled option adopted.

Services were operated by a DB Schenker Class 67, Mark 3 carriages and a Driving Van Trailer. To operate the service, DB Regio purchased a fleet of ex Virgin West Coast Mark 3s and Driving Van Trailers and put them through a refurbishment programme at Marcroft Engineering, Stoke-on-Trent. A dedicated fleet of four Class 67s (012-015) were repainted in Wrexham & Shropshire livery ready for the launch in April 2008 followed by a fifth (010) in April 2009.

When services commenced, none of the carriages were ready so Mark 3s were hired from Cargo-D and operated in top and tail with a Class 67 at each end. The Driving Van Trailers entered service in October 2008, but it would be September 2009 before the first Mark 3s were ready. Originally the four sets consisted of three Mark 3s, this was later increased to four from May 2009 although these were not refurbished internally.

Chiltern Railways Class 168s were cleared to operate on Wrexham & Shropshire's route and reached Shrewsbury on at least one occasion.

With the reduction in service levels from December 2010, a Mark 3 set was hired to Chiltern Railways to operate a Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone peak-hour service.

Depots

The Mark 3 sets were based at Chiltern Railways' Aylesbury depot. They were also stabled at Wembley depot and in the bay platforms at the south end of Wrexham General that were reactivated.

Proposed merger with Chiltern Railways

In September 2009 Wrexham & Shropshire announced that from the beginning of 2010, it hoped to transfer operation of the Wrexham & Shropshire branded services to fellow DB Regio subsidiary Chiltern Railways. In light of the problems encountered with Wrexham & Shropshire abstracting revenue from Chiltern Railways, the Department for Transport did not sanction the merger.

Welsh Assembly funding

In October 2006 the Welsh Assembly announced that Wrexham & Shropshire did not qualify for employment grants which it had intended to use to improve the facilities at Wrexham General railway station in order to turn it into the company's operational centre. This led to speculation that, if the funding could not be found, the company might have to move to Shrewsbury, which would affect the number of services it could run to/from Wrexham. However, in November 2006 the Welsh Assembly announced that the Wrexham & Shropshire was eligible for the grant and, as a result, a site survey at Wrexham General was undertaken. The depot would be open to all train-operating companies.

Demise

On 28 January 2011 operations ceased after a review concluded there was no prospect of the business ever being profitable. The last train was the 18:30 from London Marylebone to Wrexham General. The rolling stock was transferred to Chiltern Railways.