The Midlands Engine Rail strategy
Birmingham Airport Connectivity
The introduction of 32 extra daily services to and from Coventry and Birmingham International aimed at improving access to the airport, NEC campus, UK Central and the HS2 Interchange station. This would also include direct links to Birmingham International from Derby, Sheffield, York and Newcastle.
Midlands Rail Hub
A £2 billion rail programme unveiled in June which is aimed at transforming east-west connectivity across the Midlands, creating space for faster and more frequent services between locations such as Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Derby and Nottingham. This would include 24 extra passenger trains per hour and 85,000 extra seats into and out of Birmingham city centre each day.
Birmingham - Black Country Shrewsbury
Plans are being developed to improve the speed and frequency along this route including 32 additional services per day, reducing journey times between Birmingham and Shrewsbury from 56 to 45 minutes and a new direct hourly service from Shrewsbury to London via Wellington and Telford.
Midlands Connect HS2 Conventional Compatible Services
Also announced this week, Midlands Connect wants HS2 trains to travel directly between Birmingham and Nottingham on both the new high-speed line and traditional rail lines via the HS2 East Midlands
Hub in Toton, south west of Nottingham. Using so-called ‘Conventional Compatible Services’, it would slash the current journey time between the two cities from 72 to 33 minutes.
A second element would see the electrification of some East Midlands routes to enable a direct service between Bedford, Leicester and Leeds, also using part of the new HS2 network north of Toton.
Derby - Stoke - Crewe
Plans to introduce faster, more frequent services along the corridor, projected to increase passenger demand on the line by 72 per cent, to 350,000 users per year by 2037. This would double services to two trains per hour and reduce journey times between Derby and Crewe from 79 to 59 minutes
HS2 East Midlands Hub Connectivity
Project is investigating how to enhance links between the towns and cities of the East Midlands with the new HS2 hub in Toton including four trains per hour from Leicester, Nottingham and Derby, and connectivity to other local towns.
Nottingham - Lincoln
A doubling of services to two trains per hour, also calling at Newark, and the reduction of journey times from 55 to 45 minutes.