London Northwestern Railway has announced proposals for a new train service connecting Manchester with London Euston via the West Midlands.
Under the proposals, London Northwestern Railway would extend London Euston – Crewe services to Manchester Victoria, and services between Stafford and Crewe would extend through to Manchester Airport.
As well as a boost for Manchester passengers, the plans would create direct links from Rugeley, Lichfield, Tamworth and Atherstone to the city and Warrington.
The services between Manchester Victoria and London Euston would use the operator’s Class 730 electric trains, with each 10-car train being able to carry more than 1,200 passengers.
LNWR would work with other operators and Network Rail to find a best case solution to tie in with upgrades at Manchester Victoria and, of course, the TransPennine Route Upgrade.
If approved, the new services could start from May 2026 once crew training is complete.
“This proposal puts passengers at the heart of the railway and is the common sense solution to increase connectivity between the North West and the West Midlands following the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2.
“With platform space at Euston at a premium, the best way to provide new journey opportunities to Manchester is simply to extend existing services, rather than trying to squeeze more trains onto the congested West Coast Main Line.
“Additionally, unlike the Open Access model, the millions of pounds of extra revenue our proposals would generate will be returned to the taxpayer, providing a win-win for rail passengers.
“Just as we have shown with our existing long-distance services to Birmingham and Liverpool, our green and environmentally-friendly new electric trains will provide an affordable alternative to the car and coach, with fares up to 50% cheaper than the main intercity operator.
Ian McConnell, managing director of West Midlands Trains, operator of London Northwestern Railway
Responses
When Manchester Victoria was built it had 16 platforms and passing tracks, which allowed non-stopping trains, usually freight, to pass through. no with no extra tracks it is reduced to 9 platforms, only 8 of which are for through services. The 2nd attempt to link this station with Piccadilly brought in extra services, with the added problem that the line between Deansgate and Piccadilly is still a single line in each direction. The result, the extra services introduced, are invariably delayed or cancelled because the lines are beyond full capacity. The Nationalised and unaccountable Network Rail, led the railway companies to believe that extra capacity would be made available at Piccadilly, but Mayfield, their only option, now appears to be an ‘oldies’ exhibition centre. Great news that extra London service is being introduced, but where is the extra capacity?
Sounds like London Northwestern Railway are to extend their services from London Euston and Birmingham New Street to Manchester Victoria. What about Northampton-Manchester Victoria via Birmingham New Street/Stoke-on-Trent.
Whilst this is a welcome development what we really need to see is the introduction of alternative routes so that rail services as a whole are more resilient in times of disruption. Manchester Piccadilly to London St. Pancras would be a great route to provide some competition and an alternative to the west coast main line when, as is all too often the case, the service from Euston is in disarray. That would also benefit Leicester and Luton, etc. There are other cities that could potentially have more than one route to London too, if we took a strategic approach to resilience in this country.
This certainly looks like a better way to deliver competition between London and Manchester than setting up new OOAs.
Agree with others that it would be really beneficial if some trains could be routed through Northampton.
@Mr David Whipp We were indeed told that privatisation would bring improvements. Unfortunately these improvements have yet to materialise. We were promised more efficient trains and cheaper fares. Weve got a service that is unusable and a rip off. Unless you know youre travelling 3 months ahead. Those prices should be the Any Time Walk-up fares.
Far better to have BR back and do it properly second time round
Where were you when cross country services went from 2 hourly to twice hourly?
Since covid the government have taken more control and services have become very unreliable.
It’s not at all black and white. Privatisation can work if the right incentives are in place and it’s not all about cost reduction. Similarly public ownership can be really bad. if governments cannot afford to invest in services.
If we pretend that public ownership will solve all the problems we are just going to waste another 20 years.
Be appreciated if some of these services stopped at Northampton as this town would benefit from direct trains to Manchester Victoria and Manchester Airport.
Would this future service go via Northampton as this would be a great advantage as I am from Greater Manchester myself, and would save a lot of time and changes at other stations
Still no direct link from Stoke to Manchester Airport shocking
The Stafford – Crewe Service runs through Stoke, so if that is the route to be extended, it would be a direct rail link, although most likely still be quicker to change at Piccadilly if it calls at all the stations between Crewe and the Airport.
If it’s priced competitively and doesn’t take too much longer than Avanti and their monopoly, then I think that lots of passengers will be glad of an alternative. After all, weren’t we told that privatisation would be better good for competition. I’ve ridden on similar trains from Manchester to Edinburgh and they are if anything better than the narrow Pendelinos that are the only trains available on Manchester to London services.