Statement on the WSMR decision from Julia Buckley MP & Andrew Ranger MP

We are greatly disappointed that Wrexham, Shropshire and Midlands Railway (WSMR)’s application to run a service between Wrexham General and London Euston via Shrewsbury has been rejected by the Office for Rail and Road.

The lack of capacity on the West Coast Main Line between Rugby and Euston is the key issue and the Office for Rail and Road also rejected two other open access applications on the West Coast Main Line.

We have met with WSMR on a number of occasions and would like to put on record our appreciation for the significant amount of work they did in making the application.

We continue to work closely with WSMR and the applicant behind the proposal, Alstom. We are determined together to revise and resubmit the proposal as soon as possible, taking on board the feedback from the ORR.

Whilst the Department for Transport was supportive of WSMR’s application, decisions like this are made independent from the UK Government by the ORR. We are grateful to the Department for Transport and particularly the Rail Minister Lord Hendy for his time and support.

We have worked cross-party with MPs whose constituencies are along the proposed route to support travel and growth for our constituents, local businesses as well as tourism. We will continue to look for further opportunities to connect our communities and deliver better rail services for our constituents.