Press release -
Additional carriages in service between Birmingham and Worcester / Hereford
Passengers travelling between Birmingham and Worcester are noticing extra capacity on the route after West Midlands Railway took delivery of additional carriages.
The units - class 153s on loan from East Midlands Railway - entered service on the line last week and are being used to strengthen the capacity on the route in response to customer demand.
In order to increase capacity as soon as possible the class 153s have not had the usual West Midlands Railway branding applied to them and will run in unfamiliar red and blue colours.
Dependant on any operational factors, the units will be used on the route until further reinforcements arrive at the end of the year.
A video of the additional carriages can be found on the West Midlands Railway Twitter feed.
Richard Brooks, head of customer experience for West Midlands Railway, said:
"Due to delays in receiving additional carriages in time for our May timetable change, some trains serving Hereford and Worcester in recent months have been shorter than we would like.
"We apologise to our passengers whose journeys have not been as good as they could have been because of this and I am pleased that we have been able to provide these additional carriages.
"In order to get the trains into service as quickly as possible we have foregone the usual branding so passengers may need to get used to unfamiliar colours during this period.
"More good news is on the way as our fleet will soon be boosted with the arrival of four electric 350/4 trains, allowing us to cascade additional units onto the diesel-only Hereford and Worcester line."
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About West Midlands Trains
For further information on this release, call our press office on 03300 955150 or email press.office@wmtrains.co.uk
West Midlands Trains operates both West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway services.
- London Northwestern Railway services operate between Liverpool and Birmingham, and on the West Coast mainline to and from London Euston.
- West Midlands Railway services operate to destinations across the West Midlands via Birmingham New Street.
For more information on these services visit westmidlandsrailway.co.uk or londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk
The West Midlands Trains franchise started on 10 December 2017 and will run until 2025/26.
West Midlands Trains operates 1,300 services a day, manages 150 stations and provides over 70 million passenger journeys a year. Over the course of the franchise, West Midlands Trains will be investing £1 billion into the rail network to deliver new trains, improved routes and station upgrades. This will include 400 new train carriages across the network and space for an extra 85,000 passengers into Birmingham and London at peak times.
The franchise is a joint venture between Abellio (70.1% share) and East Japan Railway Company / Mitsui & Co., Ltd (29.9% share in a 50:50 split). Abellio is the international passenger transport subsidiary of the Dutch national railway company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen. In the UK, Abelllio operates ScotRail and Greater Anglia train services, Merseyrail services in a joint venture with Serco and buses through Abellio London. For more information visit www.abellio.com
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