Every London Midland train to be replaced or refurbished
EVERY train on the service currently run by London Midland is to be replaced or refurbished by 2021.
It means older trains will have new seats, new lighting and CCTV fitted if it’s not there already.
The plans were revealed by the Department for Transport as it published details of how the service will operate once a new franchise begins in 2017.
A document by the Department for Transport read: “We are requiring a full refurbishment of all older trains by December 2021, unless they are being replaced before the end of 2022, incorporating the replacement of seats and other interior fittings, replacement lighting and installation of CCTV where not already fitted.”
The number of peak daytime services between Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury will be doubled from one an hour to two an hour, from December 2018.
And some local services which only run between Birmingham and Wolverhampton will now be extended so that they also run past Wolverhampton to Stafford, Stoke-on-Trent and Crewe.
However, this means that stations which currently have direct trains to London, including Stone and Kidsgrove in Staffordshire, will lose those services. Instead, they will have more services to Birmingham and Wolverhampton.
Extra carriages will also be added to some services to cut congestion.
Two firms are bidding to run rail services currently operated by London Midland.
Transport minister Chris Grayling said: “It will deliver a rail service that is fit for modern life and supports the sustainable growth of the West Midlands and the country as a whole.”
The firms bidding to run the service include London And West Mid- lands Railway Ltd, a subsidiary of transport firm Govia which owns current operator London Midland.
The other bidder is West Midlands Trains Ltd, which is owned by Dutch firm Abellio and Japanese firms East Japan Railway Company and Mitsui & Co Ltd.
Whoever gets the contract will run the franchise until March 2026.
The service includes local services stopping at stations within Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and the rest of the Black Country, as well as throughout the wider West Midlands, including Lichfield, Shrewsbury, Redditch and Worcester, Stratford and Coventry.
And it includes long distance services between the West Midlands, Liverpool and London Euston.
Officially, it’s called the West Midlands franchise but passengers are more likely to know it as the London Midland service after the company which currently runs it.
The Government eventually hopes to split off the local services and put the West Midlands mayor, to be elected in May 2017, in charge of those.