THE VICE Chairman of the Bromsgrove Rail User Group (BRUG) has slammed Worcestershire County Council Cabinet’s ‘illogical’ plan to introduce a new regional rail service connecting the town to the south west.
During a meeting at County Hall members decided to formally adopt the Worcestershire Rail Investment Strategy.
The project aims to introduce two trains per hour between Worcestershire and London, as well as North Cotswold Line enhancement, Great Western electrification and the introduction of new intercity express project trains.
There is also a plan for a regional service between Kidderminster and Bromsgrove, Worcester and Cheltenham Spa, Gloucester and Bristol.
Tony Woodward, Vice Chairman of BRUG, claimed the proposed southbound route for Bromsgrove rail users through Worcester was likely to ‘fundamentally derail’ years of hard work done by the group to improve rail services in the town.
He said the route was an ‘inferior compromise to direct access to Cross Country trains at Bromsgrove’ and there was ‘no direct logical rail connection’ between the town and Kidderminster.
“The county’s aspiration to promote the introduction of a new regional rail service to the south west region, whilst apparently commendable, is however, ambiguous in its suggested station destination mix.
“More importantly, it is contrary to what BRUG aspires to see created for the best interests of Bromsgrove rail users.”
The group has campaigned for years for an additional train service from the south to Cheltenham to enable travellers to connect with long distance trains to South West destinations in Devon and Cornwall without having to go through Birmingham.
“The far more logical answer to reaching the said south west destinations from Bromsgrove, would be by creating a direct access to the some 47 southbound Cross Country service trains passing directly through Bromsgrove and Worcestershire every weekday.”
Coun Ken Pollock, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Economy and Infrastructure said the proposed changes would not affect existing Cross Country services which connected the south west of England with Bromsgrove.
“The Cross Country franchise is to be renewed in October 2019 and we will ensure that our response to the consultation process will include additional service enhancements for the county.
“The proposed changes, part of the wider Worcestershire Rail Investment Strategy, will continue to improve the rail links between stations in the Worcestershire area and the south west of England.
“Our aspiration is to include an additional regional service, starting at Bromsgrove, that serves Droitwich, Worcester, Cheltenham, Gloucester and Bristol.
“To enable this, significant investment to the existing rail infrastructure will need to be delivered, including additional track capacity and upgrades to signalling.”
