West Midlands Railway: Passengers urged to check train times ahead of major timetable change

West Midlands Railway is urging passengers to check their train times ahead of a major timetable change later this month.

From Sunday 21 May West Midlands Railway will be making a number of changes to its services, particularly impacting routes via Birmingham Snow Hill which include destinations such as Worcester, Kidderminster and Stratford-upon-Avon.

Changes include:

• Train times on all routes via Birmingham Snow Hill will change to create a more consistent and resilient timetable
• An increased level of service will be introduced at Small Heath and Tyseley
• Longer turnaround times will be introduced at Kidderminster to improve recovery from delays, reducing the possibility of short-notice cancellations
• Four stations in Warwickshire – Danzey, Wood End, Wootton Wawen and The Lakes – will no longer be classified as ‘request stops’
• In response to customer feedback, the last weekday train to Hednesford from Birmingham New Street will depart later, at 11.22pm instead of 11pm currently

Jonny Wiseman, WMR customer experience director, said: “In recent years services on our Snow Hill Lines have not been as reliable as we would like and one of the primary reasons for this has been a lack of recovery time built into the timetable.

“The significant changes we are making this month will improve reliability and has been designed to create an evenly-spaced, robust and better-performing timetable for all our passengers.

“These changes have been several years in the making and I urge our customers to check their new timetables carefully to make sure they don’t get left behind.”

The changes on the Snow Hill Lines have been made in conjunction with Chiltern Railways and passengers on routes served by both operators are advised to check their connections carefully.

For more information on the May timetable change visit www.wmr.uk/may23