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London Midland Train Routes
London Midland's services are divided between two sub-brands, London Midland Express and London Midland City.
London Midland Express
This sub-brand is used primarily for semi-fast services on the West Coast Main Line. |
Birmingham New Street – Liverpool Lime Street (plus one service a day to Preston) – the former Central Citylink service.
London Euston - Northampton - Birmingham New Street – the former Silverlink County route (although latterly the services between Northampton and Birmingham had been run jointly with Central Trains).
London Euston - Crewe – a new semi-fast service, which will replace current Virgin Trains services from December 2008. This will coincide with the number of Virgin Trains services calling at stations on the Trent Valley Line (and other parts of the West Coast Main Line) being reduced.
London Euston – Liverpool Lime Street – one direct service per day.
The brand is also used for two former Silverlink services on branches off the West Coast Main Line, namely the Marston Vale Line (from Bletchley to Bedford) and the St Albans Branch Line (from Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey). It is a requirement of the franchise that Transport for London's Oyster Cards can be used on trains between London and Watford Junction. In the past, TfL have expressed interest in taking over the St Albans branch, and installing Oyster Card readers on the stations along it; however this route was included within the London Midland franchise.
London Midland City
This sub-brand is used for local and commuter services around the Birmingham / Coventry Area, sponsored by Centro/ Network West Midlands, that were previously run by Central Trains. These services are:
Birmingham New Street – Northampton
Birmingham New Street – Wolverhampton
Lichfield – Birmingham New Street - Redditch (the Cross-City Line)
Birmingham New Street - Walsall - Stafford (the Chase Line)
Birmingham New Street – Shrewsbury
Birmingham New Street – Hereford via Bromsgrove
Worcester - Birmingham Snow Hill – Leamington Spa / Stratford-upon-Avon (the Snow Hill Lines)
Stourbridge Junction – Stourbridge Town (the Stourbridge Branch Line)
Coventry – Nuneaton
Walsall - Wolverhampton
London Midland Smaller stations
London Midland operate several "limited stop" stations, where only a handful of trains a day stop:
These include:
Hartlebury; six trains a day Monday-Saturday, peak only, no Sunday service.
Bordesley, one train per day Monday-Friday (a parliamentary train), football specials on Saturday, no Sunday service.
From December, the competition of the West Coast Mainline upgrade and the Trent Valley upgrading will deliver the following enhancements to London Midland services (in addition to the Virgin Trains enhancements):
New hourly service London-Northampton-Rugby-Nuneaton-Stafford-Stoke-Crewe;
Full half hourly service between Liverpool and Birmingham;
Direct services between London Euston and Birmingham via Northampton;
Half hourly service Birmingham-Northampton;
Faster timings for services between Northampton and London Euston;
Faster timings for services on the Coventry-Wolverhampton and the Birmingham-Walsall-Rugeley route.
These services will utilise the new expanded fleet of Desiro trains that are to be delivered soon.
London Midland Train fleet
London Midland's fleet is currently composed of rolling stock inherited from Silverlink and Central Trains. They plan to improve the reliability and interior design the existing Class 153 and Class 170 trains, and install passenger information systems and CCTV on the majority of the fleet. They also intend to use automatic load-monitoring systems to measure how heavily their services are used, for the purpose of alleviating over-crowding.
As of 12 November 2007 there are already several units operating in the new livery and re-furbished green interior, but all of the Class 150 "Sprinter" units still carry their original liveries, albeit without Central Trains branding. It appears that London Midland have no plans to re-brand the Sprinter fleet, only to remove the logo of their predecessor.
As part of its franchise agreement, London Midland is committed to a major programme of new rolling stock. In its initial plan, it announced that it would bring into service an additional 37 Class 350 units from Siemens which it plans to use in replacing its Class 321s. After beginning its operations, London Midland announced two further orders, with fifteen 3-car and twelve 2-car Class 172 Turbostar units ordered from Bombardier Transportation, together with a pair of Class 139 railcars from Parry People Movers for use on the Stourbridge line. When the two Class 139's enter service on the Stourbridge town line, the current Class 153 will be moved to the Bedford - Bletchley line. These will replace Class 150s on this route; the remainder of London Midland's Class 150s will be replaced like for like by the Class 172s. Under the government's rolling stock plan, the Class 150s will be cascaded to other TOC's.
As part of the Department for Transport's rolling stock plan, published in January 2008, the current fleet of 17 Class 323s currently operated by Northern will be transfered to London Midland in order to form a uniform fleet with 24 new units being ordered for Northern.
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Don't pay too much for your London Midland Train Ticket. Book in advance with Computicket.co.uk and save up to 80% on what you would pay at the station for your ticket on the day of departure. Travel in style with London Midland Express without paying any more than you have to.
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