Not sure if this is the best place, but since Banbury is the only point where Wrexham & Shropshire touches the FGW network, here goes.

Wrexham & Shrophire's passenger service launch date will be Monday, April 28.
See http://www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk/item.php?id=22&type=1

As they are still waiting for their own refurbished Mk3 coaches to arrive - held up by the delays at Marcroft in Stoke completing the Grand Central fleet - they are going to hire Mk3s from Cargo-D's charter fleet to start operations. Not clear yet if they will be DVT-operated at the start, or top and tail 67s, which the test trains are. W&S trains will stop at Banbury to pick up northbound passengers and drop off southbound, running non-stop to and from Marylebone.

Traction will be hired EWS Class 67s in a special livery (67012-15). Couple have been finished at Toton so far, see http://geoffdoncaster18.fotopic.net/p49463043.html

I have seen a suggestion that they are going to be running a full shadow service in the timetabled paths from April 22, to get staff in the swing of things, ahead of the public launch - probably hoping to avoid the problems that have dogged Grand Central - and there are a lot of training trips out there already.

There was some discussion previously of this service and Virgin's new Wrexham peak train to and from London Euston in the Pullman thread in Across the West.

Virgin will be running a five-car Voyager (extension of existing Chester services) but this is a pretty cynical spoiling move, as they have never shown any interest in the town until now.

In any case, W&S's real target is Shropshire, where Virgin's name is mud, after they took over from BR with loud promises about reinstating through trains from London to Telford and Shrewsbury, then discovered why BR had stopped doing it - the expense of having a diesel and driver specially at Wolverhampton and paying for shunters to couple and uncouple the loco - and dropped the service again.

There is also likely to be good demand at the stations between Shrewsbury and Wrexham, which, up until the end of the BR diesel operations, had at least one service direct from London on Friday evenings, which ran through to Chester (does anyone know if there was a return on Sundays, I'm not sure about that?). Journey times are quite long, but I'm sure the convenience of the through trains will be a winner with a lot of people.

I, too, think that Virign are mean for doing that.

It will just steal a high proportion of the profit peak passengers!

And, if the Shrewsbury service is successful, I would not stop thinking that Virgin might have a re-think.

 

I'm intrigued by the 'rail competition rules'.

How do these come (and not come) into play, and who decides?

There are obviously several routes that operate over the same path, but use different operators (e.g South West Trains and FGW between London & Torquay/Plymouth/ Exeter). I know it is a different London terminus, but it is still London!

Don't Chiltern Trains (or whatever they are called now) also cover Banbury, as well as FGW?

Also.. The banbury stop on the route is only for picking up north-bound passengers, and dropping off south-bound, so it won't really affect chiltern or FGW.

5 trains each weekday, 4 on Saturdays and 3 on Sunday is not going to have any impact on fares or over-crowding, when there are 2 direct trains each hour to London (and 2 more each hour with connections via Oxford).

Half of W&S is owned by Laing Rail, aka Deutsche Bahn, the parent company of Chiltern Railways, so not a competitive issue there.

I'm not entirely sure how Banbury gets into the West Coast franchise competition clauses equation (and does anyone other than Virgin, DfT and ORR's lawyers know what it all means really?), but I have always understood that was why it was pick-up and set-down only there, as with Wolverhampton.

It is probably over the revenue-splitting arrangements in the West Midlands. CrossCountry links Wolverhampton and Banbury, and shares West Coast tracks north of Coventry or Birmingham, so I think that is where the answer lies.

Certainly it's not about Laing Rail competing with itself for traffic from Banbury to and from London and no-one does the journey on FGW as it takes far longer via Oxford and Reading.

W&S website is now ready for start of services, with fares and other ticket information - emphasis on getting tickets texted to your mobile phone, online purchase not up-and-running just yet - plus on board services.

http://www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk/index.php

For more info and pictures of test trains this week, see http://www.nwrail.org.uk

Click on the noticeboard news and views link on the homepage.

willc article link on today's launch.
http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/headlines/display.var.2228624.0.new_rail_link_takes_to_tracks.php