News Release

13th March 2004

VICTORY FOR LICHFIELD COMMUTERS

Following intense lobbying from Michael Fabricant and rail groups and following a private 90 minute meeting held in London on Thursday (11th March) at the House of Commons between Michael Fabricant and Stuart Baker (Director of the West Coast Route Modernisation) and Tony Francis both from the Strategic Rail Authority, extra train services will now be laid on between Lichfield and London from September compared with the original proposals. It is in September that major works will begin on improving the tracking and signalling north of Lichfield Trent Valley railway station and this work will continue until 2008. There will be some further improvements to the service in 2006 and major improvements from 2008 when extra train services to London will be added.

Michael Fabricant has now been informed by the SRA that, subject to slight variation in timings, the train timetable from September this year and for the next 4 years will provide at least the following regular train services between Lichfield Trent Valley (LTV) and London on weekdays:-

LTV to Euston
0629 0757
0722 0843
0920 1040
1520 1712
2208 0002

Euston to LTV
0600 0733
0935 1129
1648 1805
1748 1903
1938 2051
2045 2203

"I have been particularly concerned that there should be a train service from Lichfield to London after 9am which arrives in London before lunch but is off-peak so considerably cheaper than the earlier train services. After long discussions with the SRA they accepted that it is not fair to ask commuters from Lichfield to have to travel via Birmingham New Street. I pointed out that older people cannot afford peak-rate fares and that carrying luggage and changing trains is just not an option. I was also concerned that there should be sufficient train services at peak times both to London and also returning from London.

"I am also pleased that a mid evening (8.45pm) service from Euston returning to Lichfield has been added back into the timetables." says Michael Fabricant. "I learned that after 2008 another additional 30 train sets (not probably operated by Virgin) will be provided to give still more services to London and Manchester from LTV using the latest rolling stock, but not Pendolinos.

"I impressed strongly on the SRA that although Lichfield is not the biggest City in the UK, it is growing in size, and that its professional residents need to be able to commute to London. Lichfield punches well above its weight and I am glad that the SRA have checked the data and have now agreed with me.

"Although the new timetable isn't perfect - no timetable is - given the major works soon to be undertaken to the west coast main line, I believe that we have ended up with a far better service than was originally planned. And there is now some certainty over services to be made available over the next few years. Interestingly, the SRA are also considering providing 'BahnBuses' to connect Lichfield with other stations to offer yet more services.

"All in all, I think the SRA are to be congratulated for being in listening mode and responding to the concerns of commuters." says Michael Fabricant.

There will be another opportunity for the SRA to be in "listening mode" when two senior directors of the SRA join Michael and 25 or so members of the Lichfield Commuters' Club for dinner in a private dining room of the House of Commons on the evening of Thursday 6th May.