West Midlands Trains news
West Midlands Trains operates passenger services under the West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway brands.
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Rail Business UKPorterbrook to finance Class 730 depot improvements at Bletchley
UK: Rail leasing and asset management company Porterbrook is to finance a £66m upgrade of Bletchley depot as the principal maintenance base for West Midlands Trains’ Alstom Class 730 Aventra EMU fleet. This will include investment in overhead electrification equipment, 10-car and five car sidings, refurbishment ...
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Rail Business UKFull Bedford – Bletchley service returns with £1 tickets
UK: A full service will resume on the Marston Vale Line between Bedford and Bletchley from February 19, operator West Midlands Trains has announced. Trains on the route were replaced by buses in December 2022 following the demise of Vivarail, which supplied ...
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Rail Business UKClass 730 EMU arrives in the West Midlands
UK: ‘Customers will have their breath taken away’ said West Midlands Mayor Andy Street when West Midlands Railway presented its Alstom Aventra Class 730 EMUs in Wolverhampton on February 8. As part of a £700m investment in new rolling stock, operator West Midlands Trains is introducing ...
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Rail Business UKCapacity increase future-proofs Birmingham’s University station
UK: A three-year project to increase passenger capacity at University station on Birmingham’s Cross City Line was completed with the opening of two buildings on January 28. The station was designed for 500 000 passengers/year when it opened in 1978, but expansion of the university and ...
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Rail Business UKInterview: ‘It’s time to bring back dynamism’
UK: Cost control, revenue growth and a competitive dynamic will be key to securing the future of the UK rail sector, Transport UK Group Chief Executive Dominic Booth explains to Tony Miles.
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Rail Business UKBedford - Bletchley train services to resume
UK: A limited train service on the Marston Vale Line between Bedford and Bletchley is to resume on November 20, London Northwestern Railway has announced. The route has been served by rail-replacement buses since December 2022, when Vivarail which maintained the Class 230 DMUs used on ...
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Rail Business UKClass 730 EMUs enter service with London Northwestern Railway
UK: West Midlands Trains has put its first Alstom Class 730 Aventra electric multiple-units into service on London Northwestern Railway-branded services on the West Coast Main Line. The first passenger service was the 06.04 from Bletchley to London Euston on November 13. Class 730s will initially ...
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Rail Business UKWest Midlands Trains sets out Aventra EMU deployment plan
West Midlands Trains expects to start introducing its two fleets of Class 730 Aventra EMUs into service later this year after a lengthy delay caused by production constraints at Alstom’s Derby plant.
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Rail Business UKCAF Class 196 enters service with West Midlands Trains
UK: The first of 26 CAF Class 196 diesel multiple-units ordered by West Midlands Trains has entered service.
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Rail Business UKWest Midlands Trains is facing unprecedented challenges, says Managing Director
UK: The last year has been one of ‘unprecedented challenges’, according to West Midlands Trains Managing Director Ian McConnell. Addressing the TOC’s annual stakeholder conference in Birmingham on October 10, he noted that the move to a National Rail Contract — where revenue risk rests with ...
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Rail Business UKAbellio UK management buy-out as NS exits British market
UK: Dutch state passenger operator NS has announced a management buy-out of its Abellio UK rail and bus business.
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Rail Business UKWest Midlands Trains appoints next Managing Director
UK: ScotRail Chief Operating Officer Ian McConnell is to become Managing Director of West Midlands Trains in April, once ScotRail has been transferred from Abellio to public body Scottish Rail Holdings. McConnell was previously Franchise & Programmes Director at Greater Anglia, and ...
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Rail Business UKOn-train air quality standards to be reviewed following RSSB research
UK: The Department for Transport has ordered a review of regulations governing exposure to air pollution on trains and at stations, after research commissioned from the Rail Safety & Standards Board found that air quality was ‘poorer than desired’ on some trains using diesel power. RSSB’s ...
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Rail Business UKDirect awards agreed with Greater Anglia and West Midlands Trains
UK: The Abellio-led Greater Anglia and West Midlands Trains businesses have agreed directly-awarded National Rail Contracts with the Department for Transport, ahead of the expiry of their Emergency Recovery Measures Agreement contracts on September 19. Both business are currently run as joint ventures between Abellio and ...
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Rail Business UKStations to reopen on Birmingham’s Camp Hill line as funding finalised
UK: West Midlands Combined Authority has signed off the final £20m tranche of funding to reopen the Camp Hill line south of Birmingham for local passenger services.
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Rail Business UKStourbridge shuttle peoplemovers to be modified
UK: Services on the short branch from Stourbridge Junction to Stourbridge Town will be replaced by buses for two weeks from February 8, with West Midlands Railway and Pre Metro Operations taking advantage of current low ridership to make improvements to the route’s two Parry People ...
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Rail Business UKWest Midlands Trains deploys on-train information and entertainment
UK: West Midlands Trains has deployed an on-train real-time information and entertainment system supplied by GoMedia and its parent company Icomera. Passengers connect their smart device to on-train wi-fi, and can then access live information about both the progress of the train and onward connections. There is ...
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Rail Business UKLeasing company takes on DMU heavy maintenance
UK: Responsibility for heavy maintenance, future maintenance optimisation and the enhancement of West Midlands Trains’ Bombardier Transportation Class 172 diesel multiple-units has been transferred from the operator to Porterbrook. The leasing company said this ‘new, more collaborative’ way of working would build on the quality and performance ...
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Rail Business UKTendering underway for new Black Country stations
UK: Invitations to tender for the construction of stations at Darlaston and Willenhall on the freight-only Walsall to Wolverhampton line have been issued, after planning permission was granted by Walsall Council. Opening is planned for 2023, with the two stations to be served by an hourly service ...
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Rail Business UKClass 730 EMU for Birmingham’s Cross-City Line revealed
UK: One of the Bombardier Transportation Class 730 Aventra electric multiple-units which West Midlands Trains has ordered for its Cross-City Line services through Birmingham has been unveiled at the manufacturer’s Derby factory. ‘Designed and built in Derby they really are made in the ...