From 10 December London Midland will change to the newly created West Midlands Railway.
A new company West Midlands Trains Ltd (which is a joint venture between Abellio, East Japan Railway Company and Mitsui & Co Ltd) will run the region’s rail services under new franchise name West Midlands Railway.
Trains running only in the West Midlands area will be jointly managed by the Department for Transport (DfT) and West Midlands Rail (WMR), a consortium of 16 local councils.
Changes to customers on day one will be minimal and it may take some time to rebrand all the trains in the area, however, a £1 billion package of investment has been promised for the region and will be delivered over the next few years.
Benefits include:
- 20,000 extra seats for rush hour passengers in Birmingham.
- 100 new carriages on the Cross City line
- 80 new carriages for the Snow Hill line
- Compensation if services are delayed by more than 15 minutes
- Free WiFi on all main line services
- A roll out of smart ticketing and live passenger information
- Trains and stations branded in a locally specified West Midlands Railway livery
Read Full Article at Network West Midlands website.
The new West Midlands Railway website will be live from Sunday 10th December 2017.
