Plans are afoot for improvements for passengers using the West Midlands rail services, after Bill Cash MP presented a petition in the House of Commons declaring that “the residents of Barlaston request the reopening of Barlaston railway station.”
He said:
At present, my constituents wishing to travel by train from Barlaston must first take either one or two buses to Stoke-on-Trent or Stafford and then undertake journeys on foot to rail replacement bus stops in Stone, which is a significant inconvenience and means access to the rail network is considerably difficult.
The success of the reopening of Stone railway station in 2008 has demonstrated the potential for local stations to thrive, because Stone has seen a remarkable growth in its annual passenger footfall figures, more than doubling from 48,000 in 2009-10 to 100,000 in 2013-14.”
Here are the contents of the letter from the department of transport announcing the new tender process for the West Midlands rail franchise:
[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” ]Dear Sir William,
I am pleased to inform you that this morning I published the Invitation to Tender (ITT) for the next West Midlands rail franchise. This sets out our plans for significant improvements for passengers using the West Midlands rail services, including enhancements to the train service and ambitious plans for increasing capacity.
We have set out what we want to see as a minimum, but we are looking for bids that exceed these expectations. It is now for bidders to step up to the challenge and tell us how they will make these improvements happen so that passengers are put at the heart of the West Midlands franchise.
Alongside the ITT we have also published a Stakeholder Briefing Document, which provides a summary of almost 2,000 responses to the public consultation which ran from December 2015 to March 2016. It also explains how we have reflected the consultation comments in the franchise specification. We are very grateful to all the individuals and stakeholders who took their time to submit responses.
Thank you for taking the time to write in to the consultation regarding reopening Barlaston station with which you also enclosed the observations of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport in response to the presentation of a petition in Parliament. We have received requests to reinstate rail services where a replacement bus is currently in operation, this has been predominantly at Barlaston and Wedgwood. We are asking bidders to develop proposals and costs to reinstate rail services at either Wedgwood/Barlaston stations. We will evaluate each submission to determine whether reinstating services at either station is deliverable and affordable. We will then seek to run a formal closure consultation process for any stations where services are not being reinstated. Further information is available from the Stakeholder Briefing Document.
Bidders now have until November this year to submit their bids. The Department will then evaluate these before announcing the preferred bidder in June 2017, with the new franchise expected to start in October 2017.
The specification we have published today will give rail passengers who use the West Midlands network the high-quality services that they deserve, and will ensure that the West Midlands region has a rail network that supports its growing economy.
The minimum specified improvements include:
- Space for more than 20,000 additional passengers to travel into London and Birmingham in the morning peak.
- More evening services from Birmingham to Lichfield City, Bromsgrove, Kidderminster, Whitlocks End and Dorridge and later last services from Birmingham to Wolverhampton, Bromsgrove and Liverpool.
- More than 300 extra Sunday services across the franchise by 2021, including 50 new services in each direction between Birmingham and Longbridge and the same between Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield.
- A new hourly service from Birmingham and Wolverhampton to Crewe via Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent.
- Free WiFi on all mainline rolling stock by the end of 2019.
- New ticket options for part time travellers.
- New direct peak time services between Walsall and London.
- A new hourly service between Leamington Spa and Coventry, including serving the new station at Kenilworth from December 2017.
These are the minimum standards we expect and bidders have the potential to offer much more than this.
PAUL MAYNARD[/box]
