WSMR to finish

[merlodlliw]

It is indeed a sad day, having been one to fight for the service into Wrexham, I feel sorry for the staff. It as been a pleasure to travel on W/S and meet the staff.

It is the end of an era.

As we have W/S employees on this site, I shall not rise to respond to anyone else.

Good Luck TDK & Skip.

Your friend Bob.

 

[GodAtum]

Wow that was a completely surprise and shock :cry:

Press Release

Alternative travel

Will people get a refund on advance tickets?

 

[westcoaster]

Very bad news, I hope all the staff can find alternative employment quickly, and have enough to tide them over.

 

[JamesM]

Very sad news. I used it only the other day and was again amazed at how clean, tidy and comfortable the standard class was.

I think the engineering work tipped them over the edge at the weekend. The last six months have had times where you don't know what service is going to run, where it's starting from etc etc until the last minute. No advance tickets and also the risk of a bus service adding another hour or two to the already lengthy journey time.

Personally I think that was the final nail, but what do I know?

An excellent service and excellent staff, a real real shame.

 

[sprinterguy]

Right. Booked the day off work on Friday, subject to the boss being confident that there won’t be any transport planning emergencies on Friday afternoon, and I’ve worked out some groovy moves to make the most of the last day of Wrexham and Shropshire! I might as well say my final farewells!

Anybody else likely to be around for the last train?

 

[andyfrommk]

Anybody else likely to be around for the last train?

I was thinking about it but http://www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk/ takes me straight to the news article so I cannot book a ticket

 

[flymo]

I was thinking about it but http://www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk/ takes me straight to the news article so I cannot book a ticket

They are bookable through Chiltern Trains and others as well according to the W&S website.

Advances for the 18:30 currently at £26

 

[sprinterguy]

They are bookable through Chiltern Trains and others as well according to the W&S website

Also available from the East Coast website, which is where I've booked mine from.

 

[swt_passenger]

I'm a little confused here - have WSMR lost the right to stop at Banbury and Leamington now? How come?

The original plan (IIRC) was that WSMR would make some of these 'full' calls, and a temporary track access agreement was allowed for one or two timetable periods. Chiltern reduced their service and WSMR picked up the calls, but then Chiltern were required to reinstate their calls as well. At the same time WSMR were not allowed to advertise their own fares from Banbury and Leamington Spa, passenger had to use normal 'Chiltern' fares. The current calls only had a temporary agreement from ORR.

You can trace the applications and decisions on the NR track access web pages, there's been a lot of behind the scenes discussions going on, with DfT at the root of it all...

 

[andyfrommk]

They are bookable through Chiltern Trains and others as well according to the W&S website.

Thanks for that, I saw, a while back, that I could book WSMR tickets through LM's website but what stopped me was that they showed a ticket from Banbury (The nearest station to me) to Marylebone when I was sure WSMR did not allow that, an email to WSMR went unanswered so I never booked the ticket.

Going to London looks expensive, I may go to Tame bridge Parkway and get a Chiltern train back down to Banbury since there are no return WSMR trains.

keep clicking on the link for the news story on the BBC, Lets get it to the top of the 'most popular' ranking and maybe a spot on news24

 

[Crossover]

Sympathies indeed go to all the staff who have strived for the past few years to run a good service, in what have been difficult operating conditions and I hope you all find other employment soon.

I think the positive comments on this forum and also what I have seen on the Facebook group are a testement to the company and its staff and isn't something that happens everyday. Very sad day.

 

[RAPC]

My thoughts go out to all of the staff at this time as well. Best wishes to them all in finding alternative employment at this tough time.

 

[Safety365]

I was thinking about it but http://www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk/ takes me straight to the news article so I cannot book a ticket

Buy a London Terminals to Wrexham - any-permitted ticket.

 

[ukrob]

The writing has been on the wall for 12 months, but very sad news nonetheless. The staff were some of the best, and I would hope that they have already been looking for alternative employment as this was inevitable .

 

[Ticket Man]

how much is a priv to wrexham i might take a farewell trip on them tomorrow

 

[Arriva158]

Will go out with a bang, especially for those of us who travel/see it daily passing the house, like me in Gobowen who will definately miss that familiar "yinging" whilst the train is at the station!
Bring on Friday and let's hope there will be some sort of farewell special!

 

[Metroland]

This is very sad news. Sad of course for the employees who will lose their jobs, but also for UK Rail. WSR set a standard of service for others to strive for. We need that - it ups the game of the railways generally.

Very glad to say I've travelled on their Marylebone - Shrewesbury service a few times, 1st class, and it was up to 'fine dining' standards.

Why do the companies with the best service bite the dust?

Maybe because people like cheap and in some cases nasty? The transport industry has been Ryanairised, so it's pile them on and cut out all the frills.

In truth the Wrexham and Shropshire was always economically hopeless, you might be able to run a profitable train and get enough bums on seats between Birmingham and London, but it was never going to make money north of Birmingham, especially given the travel times. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.

This is why open access is such a waste of time. You can only make money on very main lines, and the DFT do their best to restrict where you call, that's if you can get a path in the first place.

 

[shinkansen1966]

Will the other open access operators being reviewing their own situation ? In particular, Grand Central ? Hull Trains has the backing of transport conglomerate First Trains.

 

[mrcheek]

Will the other open access operators being reviewing their own situation ? In particular, Grand Central ? Hull Trains has the backing of transport conglomerate First Trains.

In case you had forgotten, WSMR were backed by DB, and that didnt save them.

First will continue to operate Hull Trains whilst it is profitable, and no more.
And quite right too.

 

[Kneedown]

It's always tragic to see fellow railwaymen cast into the realms of the unknown. I've seen it before when Jarvis folded, and seen first hand the relief of the lucky one's when they managed to find work here at EMT or elsewhere. Some are still looking.
I truly, sincerely, hope all the displaced W+S staff find new work very soon, and i wish you all the very best.
I also think that there is a message, in that, exciting and forward looking though new rail companies are, the fact that they are not franchised operators means that they can go to the wall just like that, and i ask all railway staff to think very carefully before leaving the relative (although not total) safety of employment with a franchised operator, to jump into the unknown.

Once again, my very best wishes to all the displaced staff, who did their very best to try and make it work. My thoughts are with you.

 

[shinkansen1966]

In case you had forgotten, WSMR were backed by DB, and that didnt save them.

First will continue to operate Hull Trains whilst it is profitable, and no more.
And quite right too.

Gosh no .... I hadn't forgotten. Know about WSMR being backed by DB. Just wondering about other open access operators who have no franchise obligations.

Listening to BBC R4's you and yours and they said that this morning's WSMR train from Wrexham was cancelled because staff were to upset to run the train.

 

[EWS 58038]

Will the other open access operators being reviewing their own situation ? In particular, Grand Central ? Hull Trains has the backing of transport conglomerate First Trains.

Do you really think GC would have opened the West Riding service if they were not running at a profit with their Sunderland trains?

What's more interesting right now is what's going to happen with Yoghurt Rail.

 

[shinkansen1966]

Do you really think GC would have opened the West Riding service if they were not running at a profit with their Sunderland trains?

What's more interesting right now is what's going to happen with Yoghurt Rail.

Is GC's Sunderland service making a profit ?

 

[Metroland]

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/835...tral__confident_of_making_profit_within_year/

Company made a loss the last two years, but Sunderland now in profit supporting the currently loss making Yorkshire service.

 

[trentside]

That's very disappointing, and I feel sorry for the staff and everyone who has worked so hard to make Wrexham & Shropshire one of the best operators in the country.

It's sad from a personal perspective, as I'd booked to travel with them on the 01st February. I only booked this yesterday - surprised they were still taking bookings to be honest.

 

[EWS 58038]

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/835...tral__confident_of_making_profit_within_year/

Company made a loss the last two years, but Sunderland now in profit supporting the currently loss making Yorkshire service.

It's normal for a rail service to run at a loss for the first years until becoming profitable.

 

[Metroland]

It's normal for ANY company to run at a loss for several years, it's all about growth.

Clearly, there was no hope of significant growth at the Wrexham and Shropshire to make it a profitable.

 

[barrykas]

Is it Arriva's Fault for Wrexham And Shropshire going out of Busniness?

No. It's down to economics. The trains which load best are the 0510 from Wrexham and the 1630 from Marylebone, and that's always been the case, though the 0723 from Wrexham tended to load fairly well during school holidays.

Carting around carriages full of air doesn't pay bills, sadly...And nor does carting around carriages full of people doing everything they can to reduce the amount of revenue W&S get by buying combinations of tickets and/or rangers/rovers, where the lion's share goes to the franchised operators.

Comiserations to the Wrexham and Shropshire team. I really dunno what else to say at this point, I'm just speechless...

Cheers,

Barry

 

[shinkansen1966]

It's normal for ANY company to run at a loss for several years...

A 'normality' what was suspended with VirginTrains.

15 years ago when Virgin asked the government to run trains on the WCML, they said they'd make money. And some of this money would be shared with us, the taxpayer. And now, the company only survives with public subsidy.

 

[4SRKT]

Carting around carriages full of air doesn't pay bills, sadly...And nor does carting around carriages full of people doing everything they can to reduce the amount of revenue W&S get by buying combinations of tickets and/or rangers/rovers, where the lion's share goes to the franchised operators.

People who do this are not 'doing everything they can to reduce the amount of revenue W&S get' but are behaving as rational consumers who understand how the system works. Are you saying you think Rovers should be withdrawn, or that the present ticketing regime is in some way sane? I take it that as a ticket office clerk you are a priv holder, and therefore entitled to make no observations whatsoever on other people's attempts to ride as cheaply as possible, as long as they are doing so legally.