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.

"Meanwhile, I will continue to press Central Trains for an improvement to
the facilities at Lichfield Trent Valley and Lichfield City stations. I am
not complacent about the task that faces us", Michael adds.