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Wrexham, Shropshire & Midlands Railway
Proposed UK open-access train operator From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Wrexham, Shropshire & Midlands Railway (WSMR) is a proposed open-access train operator in the United Kingdom.
In March 2024, it submitted an application to operate passenger train services between Wrexham General and London Euston via Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, Nuneaton and Milton Keynes Central, with services proposed to start in 2025. However, on 3 July 2025, the Office of Rail and Road rejected its application, with Network Rail also expressing its opposition to the current proposed route over concerns of a lack of capacity on parts of the West Coast Main Line.
If an application is approved, the operator would be run by Alstom, its first in the United Kingdom, with SLC Rail as consultants.
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The proposed service was officially announced on 14 March 2024,[1] following the operator submitting its formal application to operate, to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).[2] If approved, it hopes to operate services from May 2025 and creating a possible 50 new jobs, mainly in North Wales and the English Midlands.[3][4][5] WSMR estimates its proposed service would have 1.5 million people in their catchment area outside London.[3][4] The plans received support from Huw Merriman, Minister of State for Transport.[6]
If approved, it would reinstate a Shropshire–London direct service, following Avanti West Coast's Shrewsbury–London Euston service being terminated on 2 June 2024.[7][8]
The open-access operator would be operated by Alstom, and it would be its first passenger rail operating service in the United Kingdom if approved.[3][9][10] The Birmingham-based[11] consultancy firm SLC Rail would advise Alstom in the development of the project.[7][5]
The proposed operator was compared to a previous train operating company, Wrexham & Shropshire, which also operated Wrexham to London services via Shropshire between 2008 and 2011.[5][9] Although Wrexham & Shropshire operated along the Chiltern Main Line to London Marylebone.[11] while WSMR proposes to use the West Coast Main Line to Euston.[12] WSMR has no links to Wrexham & Shropshire.[11]
The plan is for a daily, Monday to Saturday service between Wrexham General and London Euston of five trains in each direction, reduced to four on Sundays. Trains would call at Gobowen, Shrewsbury, Telford Central, Wolverhampton, Darlaston James Bridge (when re-opened), Walsall, Coleshill Parkway, Nuneaton and Milton Keynes. It would use the current freight-only (since 1965) Sutton Park line to bypass Birmingham, particularly the Wolverhampton–Birmingham New Street–Rugby corridor. The service would allow direct trains between Wolverhampton and Walsall to Nuneaton for the first time.[3][4][11][13]
The estimated travel time between Wrexham and London is three hours, while between Shrewsbury and London is two hours.[13]
Telford and Wrekin Council have requested that trains also call at Wellington.[14] A new station at Aldridge may be opened; the line passes through the site of the former Aldridge railway station.[15] Members of Parliament in Shropshire and Wrexham, stated their support for the proposal following its announcement.[16]
In March 2024, Alstom stated that details on the operator's fleet, branding and service timetable would be announced at a later date.[7] Although it was later reported that the operator's train fleet would have "infrastructure monitoring equipment", and are planned to have first and standard class seating. The company's mobilisation director, Darren Horley, stated WSMR is planning to have features such as "instant delay repay" if any of their trains are delayed, a "seat selection facility", and possibly an "advance ordering" system for food and drinks before passengers travel on their trains. The company also stated they aspired to invest in infrastructure, such as funding enhancements at stations, and possibly a new parkway station near Shrewsbury to ease congestion.[13]
In June 2025, Network Rail said it could not support the Alstom/SLC Rail application for open-access due to congestion on infrastructure, lack of timetable capacity, current passenger traffic and how the service would increase such traffic.[17] On 3 July 2025, the ORR rejected WSMR's application reiterating concerns of insufficient capacity and the subsequent impact on existing services, particularly along the southern end of the West Coast Main Line (WCML) between Rugby and Euston.[18][19][20] Two other open-access operator proposals by Lumo and Virgin Trains, using the same southern section of the WCML, were also rejected on the same day.[21] Following the rejection, WSMR stated they intend to "reengage" with the ORR and determine what "next steps" the company should take.[20] Julia Buckley, Labour MP for Shrewsbury, voiced her continued efforts for the service and stated she would work with Alstom to create an revised bid "as soon as possible",[19] as did Andrew Ranger, Labour MP for Wrexham in working with WSMR in developing a revised bid.[21] Shaun Davies, Labour MP for Telford and the Telford and Wrekin Council also expressed their disappointment in the decision.[22]
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