West Midlands
Pressure mounts on West Midlands Trains after “totally unacceptable” performance of services this autumn.
PRESSURE is mounting on
West Midlands Trains following the “totally unacceptable” performance of services this autumn.
With official figures showing that one in five trains operated by West Midlands Railway (WMT’s brand name in the West Midlands) failed to arrive on time in October, and with more than 15% of services on the Cross City Line either significantly late or cancelled, West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has warned the operator to improve.
With complaints of overcrowding also on the rise, Street fired a barrage of criticism at WMT via local media on December 6.
“The autumn performance was totally unacceptable, and I have told WMT and Abellio in no uncertain terms that such a situation cannot be repeated without serious consequences,” he said.
“I have urged them to freeze their fares until performance is back at an acceptable level and passengers begin to see value for money again.”
Having sunk in October to its lowest monthly performance since taking over from London Midland in December 2017, WMT acknowledged the need for rapid improvement as it announced details on December 10 of a new timetable.
Introduced on December 15 (after this issue of RAIL went to press), the new simplified timetable is designed to untangle some of the problems that WMT says have arisen as a result of the May 2019 timetable change.
It means that fewer trains now split at Birmingham New Street, including an hourly service to Rugeley which will now originate from Wolverhampton instead.
Meanwhile, some stops have been removed from certain longerdistance services from Euston, in order to help those trains to more easily recover time if they are running late. A new standalone local stopping service will now run instead from New Street to Birmingham International.
Richard Brooks, customer experience director at WMR, said these measures would improve the resilience of the timetable, adding: “The new timetable we introduced in May brought in new journey opportunities and extra capacity, but also introduced a level of complexity which seriously affected reliability.
“We know things need to improve and these upcoming changes will provide a more reliable service for passengers across the West Midlands.”
WMT also announced that 16 extra carriages would be available by December 15, in order to ease overcrowding on some of the busiest routes, with a further 24 available from February.
These carriages comprise the ten four-car Class 350s that WMT sub-leases to TransPennine Express, which RAIL understands will be used by WMT primarily on the
West Coast Main Line services it operates under the London Northwestern Railway brand.
The introduction of the ‘350s’ should also enable the release from the Walsall line of the last few diesel units, which can then be used to reinforce services to Worcester and Hereford.
WMT has also pledged to make a one-off payment to season ticket holders to compensate them for the poor performance they have suffered since May (see separate story, page 16), and to provide more help to vulnerable passengers.
Malcolm Holmes, executive director of the West Midlands Rail Executive (which co-manages the West Midlands franchise with the Department for Transport), also acknowledged that WMT’s recent performance had not been good enough for the people of the
West Midlands, and said that he is holding the operator to account while attempts are made to improve it.
With WMT’s contract due to Features Editor
run until 2026, he also asked disgruntled passengers not to lose sight of the longer-term improvements that are on the way, including £680 million worth of new trains that are due to be delivered in 2020-21.
Eighty-one three-car Class 730 electric multiple units are on order from Bombardier, to replace Class 323s on Cross City Line services, while 26 two- and four-car Class 196 diesel multiple units are being built by CAF and will enable the withdrawal of Class 153 and Class 170 Turbostars from non-electrified services.
Holmes said: “Performance hasn’t been good enough, and the timetable introduced in May to carry an additional 150,000 passengers has not delivered as we hoped. We have a close relationship with the operator, but I am - and will continue to be - very challenging of its delivery in terms of the service, customer information, compensation, and many other important elements it is providing to passengers.
“I’m a Cross City Line commuter, too. It can be very uncomfortable, but the end point of all of this will be a much better railway. In a couple of years we will have a robustly performing train service, exciting new trains and a vast increase in capacity. There’s real cause for optimism, and we just need to get through this difficult period.” @paul_rail
■ See RAIL 896 for a full interview with Malcolm Holmes.