An intriguing ‘David and Goliath’ battle is due to start at the end of this year in the north-east corner of Wales.
Virgin Trains has announced that one of its weekday services each way between Chester and London, part of its new VHF (Virgin High Frequency) timetable, is to be extended to operate from and to Wrexham.
It seems Virgin intends to compete directly, and at the earliest opportunity, with the new open access service to be introduced this spring by the Wrexham, Shropshire & Marylebone Railway (WSMR), which is to operate five days a week as well as services at weekends (see: http://www.wrexham andshropshire.co.uk/timetable.html).
The WSMR has not had an easy start, despite strong support for the new service in towns along the Welsh border. Indeed, the Welsh Assembly government backed the scheme by helping to fund a new maintenance depot at Wrexham – where some 50 jobs are being created – rather than risk the new service being truncated at Shrewsbury.
WSMR originally planned to start operations last summer, running from Wrexham through Ruabon, Chirk, Gobowen and Shrewsbury, then via Wellington, Telford and Cosford to Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street to Leamington Spa and along the Chiltern route to and from London Marylebone. But plans were delayed because of a ‘moderation of competition’ clause – which really means a clause to prevent competition – in the Virgin West Coast franchise agreement.
Unless Virgin was willing to agree to WSMR services calling at Wolverhampton and Birmingham, the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) said it would have to reject the proposals.
So WSMR was forced to change its plans, meaning that WSMR trains will not be able to travel via Birmingham New Street. Instead, they will be diverted from Wolverhampton via the Grand Junction route and will call instead at Tame Bridge Parkway in the Black Country, between Walsall and West Bromwich.
The trains will then route through Birmingham International, Coventry and Leamington Spa. But they will not be able to call at either Coventry or Leamington Spa, and ORR ruled they will only be able to stop at Wolverhampton, Birmingham International and Banbury to set down passengers when going to London, and to pick up passengers at the same stations when going north.
But now, despite the significant changes forced on WSMR to protect Virgin Trains’ revenue from competition at Wolverhampton and Birmingham – and ORR’s chief executive Bill Emery saying: “The new [WSMR] route will bring significant benefits to passengers, particularly to Wrexham … that will receive a new direct service connecting them to London” – Virgin Trains is to seek to win some of the WSMR’s projected passengers and revenue by running a train “around 7am” from Wrexham to London (Euston) via Chester. A return journey will leave London at 18.10, according to a Virgin Trains press release.
It seems Virgin aims to target the business travel market. “The service would be operated by modified Super Voyager trains, with a first class service comparable to that provided on our Pendolino trains,” said Chris Gibb, chief operating officer, adding: “The Wrexham trains will run at 125mph with tilt operational over the West Coast main line between Crewe and London.”
As a result, the journey between Wrexham and London (Euston) will be “around two-and-a half-hours”. The WSMR services to Marylebone will take over four hours.
And, with the added statement in Virgin’s press release that “more services on weekdays and weekends have not been ruled out if it is successful”, it might be assumed that the operator has an eye on capturing most of the potential Wrexham-London rail passenger business.
Several people (including some from Virgin) have contacted to me to say this is likely to mean that Virgin will grab much of the Wrexham-London revenue under the industry’s revenue allocation system, ORCATS.
This outbreak of commercial competition is all a bit strange when we remember that WSMR’s help is from Welsh taxpayers investing in the new Wrexham depot while Virgin Trains receives cash from all UK taxpayers – £274 million this year, £294 million in 2008/9 – and will still be receiving £172 million when the franchise ends in 2012, according to the DfT.
Even stranger, services between Wrexham and London Euston are not included in the West Coast franchise, and Wrexham is not shown among stations served in the new timetable planned for December this year, copies of which have been circulated widely by the DfT for consultation.
Indeed, the 18.10 service from Euston, which Mr. Gibb says will return to Wrexham, is shown as going to Holyhead, due at 21.57 – although, if it were to be formed of two Voyager units that divided at Chester, it would be possible to give a Wrexham arrival at around 20.45, if a path is available.
Similarly, a Voyager unit leaving Wrexham at “around 7am” could reach Chester in time to be attached to the 05.50 from Holyhead, due into London Euston at 09.36. (By comparison, WSMR’s 07.25 departure from Wrexham is not due into London Marylebone until 11.49.)
If this is what is planned, it would seem any extension of Virgin services beyond Chester to Wrexham should be treated as ‘open access’ and subject to the same approval process that WSMR was forced to go through and which caused it to change its plans in order to protect Virgin Trains from competition in the West Midlands.
Maybe WSMR should be protected from Virgin competition at Wrexham.
The WSMR company started off as a joint venture: Renaissance Trains and Laing Rail, which is being bought by Deutsch Bahn, German Railways. It will be interesting to see how they now respond to the Virgin challenge.