West Midlands partnership to promote main line steam

West Midlands Combined Authority has partnered with Vintage Trains to help promote main line steam in the region.

According to VT, the partnership “will stimulate the West Midlands economy through the power of steam” and “develop and establish the Shakespeare Line and its stations as Britain’s premier main line heritage railway”.

Paths for the company’s ‘Shakespeare Express’, which runs between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon, are already in the Working Timetable, but the company is also planning to run to Oxford, Llandudno and Chester in its first year of operating its own services.

Previously, the promoter relied on West Coast Railways to supply crews, but it became a train operating company in its own right (the fourth to operate steam on the national network along with WCRC, DB Cargo UK and Locomotive Services Limited) following a crowdfunding appeal that has raised more than £1 million to date.

VT is set to be involved in plans for the Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022. RAIL also understands the local authority wants to safeguard a path for steam between Stratford-uponAvon and the Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster.

Speaking to RAIL after the company’s inaugural rail tour as a fully functioning outfit at the end of February, Vintage Trains Chairman Michael Whitehouse said the local authority “wants to run steam trains” in the future.

“They are going to make sure there is enough space in the timetable after 2021, when the services at Birmingham Moor Street is increased from two to three trains per hour, and they want steam trains in the timetable,” he said.

Malcolm Holmes, executive director of West Midlands Rail Executive, added: “West Midlands Railways is creating a single network vision to deliver efficiency and growth in rail services across the region. Steam trains offer an exciting opportunity to add value to our network, and play a crucial role in promoting our brand by expanding the role our railway plays in the community to encompass leisure and tourist activities.”