Wrexham & Shropshire
Former British passenger rail operator / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Wrexham & Shropshire (legally Wrexham, Shropshire & Marylebone Railway Company Limited[1]) was an open access operator that provided passenger rail services in the United Kingdom. Services between Wrexham General and London Marylebone operated from April 2008 until January 2011.
Overview | |
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Franchise(s) | Open access operator Not subject to franchising 28 April 2008 – 28 January 2011 |
Main route(s) | Wrexham General - Shrewsbury - Wellington - Tame Bridge - London Marylebone |
Other route(s) | None |
Fleet size |
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Stations called at | 12 (also called at Wembley Stadium during events) |
Parent company | Arriva |
Reporting mark | WS |
Other | |
Website | www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk |
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The company was founded in early 2006 to restore the discontinued service between London and stations in Shropshire and the Welsh Marches. In October 2006, an evaluation service was run from London Marylebone to Wrexham General to test the route's viability. In March 2007, Wrexham & Shropshire applied for track access rights to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to operate services. This application was granted from December 2007, and passenger services started on 28 April 2008. Wrexham & Shropshire had initially planned to operate a small fleet of Class 158 or Class 170 diesel multiple units. However, it was instead decided to use locomotive-hauled rakes of Mark 3 carriages, paired with Driving Van Trailers and Class 67 locomotives.
Originally it was a joint venture between John Laing and Renaissance Trains. The former sold its rail operations division and its shareholding in Wrexham & Shropshire to the German state railway company Deutsche Bahn in January 2008. In September 2009, DB Regio announced that it had arranged to take complete ownership of the company. DB Regio partially aligned the company with another of its subsidiaries, Chiltern Railways, and at one point attempted to merge the two companies together. Financial support for the venture was forthcoming from the Welsh Assembly. New facilities were opened at Wrexham General, while a refurbishment programme of the Mark 3 carriages resulted in higher quality rolling stock being introduced from September 2009.
In 2009, it became clear that the service was attracting a lower than anticipated number of passengers, an outcome that Wrexham & Shropshire attributed to a wider economic downturn. The number of trains operated was decreased from a peak of five per day to three per weekday by December 2010. A rival service by Virgin Trains between London and Wrexham via Chester had also begun in October 2008; other operators also had ambitions to start direct train services between London and Shrewsbury. During January 2011, it was announced that there was no prospect of the service ever becoming profitable; on 28 January 2011, Wrexham & Shropshire ceased all operations.