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Wrexham and Shropshire: the best railway company in the UK?

what are the insides like? plenty of tables I hope, like the old mk3 carriages
 
I quite like them. I will hopefully be using them again next month. Let's hope they get the balance right on the charming but inefficient bit again.
 
oh, crispy.

You're going on a long trip soon. Perhaps your memory will be erased of such things.
 
Telford I think. I'm looking forward to exploring the area and I've found a charming hostelry around there which is eminently suitable for a lady of my calibre.
 
Crispy said:
what are the insides like? plenty of tables I hope, like the old mk3 carriages
Click to expand...

According to (from 3:49 onwards), the layout looks exactly the same as it is now, the seats have just been upholstered differently.
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
According to this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/8240681.stm

W&S could be put out of business.
Click to expand...

Provided they dont directly compete with W+S (ie: ATW are made to run non-stop between London and Shrewsbury) there shouldnt be a problem with this, though of course ATW arent at the moment planning to do that, and one wonders how on earth they expect people to travel (and enjoy it) on a class 158 for five hours.

Also, given what subsidy ATW get off the WAG anyway (both for normal services and the £7600 a day for the Gerald train), you can see why the W+S might think that the Aber-London train will not be run "on a commercial basis".
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
According to this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/8240681.stm

W&S could be put out of business.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's a bit of a shame. I would have thought a more sensible solution might have been to offer the Shrewsbury-Aberystwyth extension to W&S, rather than handing it to the company which already holds a local monopoly across much of Wales, and doesn't have a particularly good track record on reliability, punctuality or cleanliness. Nor, in my experience, for customer service, either.

My guess is that it's because nobody wants to try to take away Aber-Shrewsbury from ATW, so now they end up getting a plum London routing on the strength of it.
 
It's a shame that they've lost their independence, but at least it's not a bunch of Charlies like Virgin taking them over:
Rail firm Wrexham & Shropshire has today announced that direct services between Wrexham, Shropshire and London will, from the New Year, be operated by a company owned by its largest shareholder, DB.

Wrexham & Shropshire restored the county’s direct link to London in 2008 and has since become the most popular train company in rail history, according to statistics on customer satisfaction from the influential National Passenger survey. From the New Year, the company intends to transfer its operating rights to Chiltern Railways, a company wholly-owned by DB which has been providing operational support to Wrexham & Shropshire since launch.

DB, German state railways, is one of the largest rail companies in the world. With an impressive performance record in Germany, it operates the Chiltern Railways franchise - which regularly tops industry performance league tables - and the country’s largest rail freight distribution company, DB Schenker. DB has owned 50% of Wrexham & Shropshire since launch, with the other 50% split between the shareholders of Renaissance Trains and John Laing.
Click to expand...
 
editor said:
It's a shame that they've lost their independence, but at least it's not a bunch of Charlies like Virgin taking them over:
Click to expand...

Indeed - DB have been in from the beginning (as the press release says), so its not as if its a takeover in the normal sense of the word, and being part of Chiltern (the best franchise in the UK, iirc) will probably strengthen them in the long run.
 
Bumped because the W+S have become the only line in the country to offer flat-rate, open, first class fares between London and any station on the line north of Cosford. The price is £120.

They have also cut the price of advance-booked first class fares as well, so you can get return journeys from London to Wrexham (or the other way around) for as little as £70.

http://www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk/first-class.php

:D
 
I was on a W&S train back to London last Sunday evening and it was pretty much completely full! Very different from when I travelled with them soon after they'd started operating and the train was pretty empty and I was wondering whether they'd ever make money.

By the way I think that ATW is now owned by DB - same as Chiltern and W&S - I wonder if they will all now amalgamate into one entity.
 
I got a message from one of my contacts at WSMR just before 23:00, 25th January, to say that the company has folded and that the last train will run on Friday 28th January, possibly the 18:30 from Marylebone.

I don't know what has happened, maybe DB has pulled the operation, presumably further information will be available later today. The W&S website is still up, but there is a "test" news message dated the 25th January, so maybe that will go live later today.

Whatever the reason, it is very sad news, as the railway was one of the best around for many years and its workforce a wonderful bunch of people, who presumably are now out of their jobs. I, and I'm sure many others, feel deeply for them as they've done a great job. Let's hope their talents can be recognised elsewhere within the railway industry.

Whether Chiltern will take on any of the crews and take over any running of the trains remains to be seen.

Thanks for trying and commiserations to all at WSMR...

Sadly, Geoff
Click to expand...

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?p=570915#post570915

:(
 
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