Mark Garnier today welcomes the Transport Secretary’s new action to improve West Midlands Trains (WMT) services.
WMT will be required to spend an extra £20 million on improving services for passengers after breaching its performance targets.
Passengers across the Wyre Forest who use West Midlands Railway services will benefit from the additional funding, which will be invested in delivering timetable improvements and recruiting new train drivers to tackle staff shortages. Passengers will also continue to be offered compensation for poor service with discounts on season tickets and off-peak fares.
The additional £20 million funding will be used for a variety of measures including:
- Compensating passengers for the poor service by offering a 3% discount on season ticket renewals and offering a 10% reduction for off peak fares during July and August 2020.
- A series of timetable improvements, with wide-ranging changes planned for May 2020 and December 2020.
- Recruitment of additional drivers and senior conductors to combat staffing shortages
- Investment in day to day operations, to make services more reliable.
To ensure that train services improve Mark will be meeting with the new WMT Managing Director, Julian Edwards on 24 February to talk about specific issues and how to make improvements.
Commenting, Mark Garnier MP said:
“I support this intervention and I am committed to working with West Midlands Trains and am looking forward to our meeting on 24th February”.
‘However, the offer of a 10% discount for off peak fares during July and August is just a cynical attempt to hoodwink commuters into thinking that they are being helped. This is just a measure to increase demand during the off-peak holiday period. West Midlands Trains have let down their consumers and need to work hard to provide a far better service that people can rely on”.
ENDS