London Midland

London Midland

Overview
Franchise(s):	West Midlands 11 Nov 2007 - 31 Oct 2017
Main region(s):	West Midlands, London
Other region(s):	North West, East Midlands
Stations called at:	178
Stations operated:	146
Route km operated:	867.4
National Rail abbreviation:	LM
Parent company:	Govia
Website:	www.londonmidland.com
Route map

London Midland^[1] is a train operating company in England, owned by Govia, operating the West Midlands franchise.

London Midland operate local services in the West Midlands and surrounding areas through their City sub-brand. They also operate long distance and commuter services on the West Coast Main Line through the Express sub-brand from London Euston to and from the West Midlands, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire. Additionally, services on the Stourbridge Town Branch Line operated by Pre Metro Operations are branded as the London Midland Stourbridge Shuttle.

The franchise was originally due to expire in September 2015, this was extended to March 2016, and again to October 2017 after London Midland agreed to put on extra trains and improve services.^[2][3]

Services

London Midland's services are divided between four groups of routes: London Euston Routes, Birmingham Regional, West Midlands Local and Branch Lines.^[4]

• London Euston Routes includes train services between London Euston and Birmingham New Street or Crewe, as well as services which only use a small section of the route (e.g. Northampton - Birmingham New Street).
• Birmingham Regional includes longer-distance, semi-fast services between Birmingham New Street and Hereford, Shrewsbury or Liverpool Lime Street.
• West Midlands Local includes stopping services through Birmingham to nearby settlements such as Lichfield and Kidderminster.
• Branch Lines includes services which operate on branch lines that are essentially separate from the rest of the network.

London Midland operates several "parliamentary train" stations, where only a handful of trains a day call. These include:

• Bordesley; 1 train per week on a Saturday, from Whitlocks End to Great Malvern, plus football specials.
• Polesworth; 1 train per day from Northampton to Crewe.

London Midland also operates stations where it operates no services. These stations are only served by CrossCountry, which does not manage any stations. These include:

• Wilnecote
• Coleshill Parkway
• Water Orton

As of February 2016, its routes off-peak Monday to Friday, with frequencies in trains per hour (tph), include:^[5]

Former services

A map of the former London Midland network

170511 at Gloucester.

In December 2008 London Midland discontinued the direct service between Walsall and Wolverhampton. Traffic on the route was low, but growing, and there was a campaign to keep the service.^[6] The service was a priced option with the new West Midlands franchise, but the Department for Transport decided not to provide funding from December 2008, and as a result the service ceased.^[7] There is only one early morning train on Saturdays from Wolverhampton to Walsall (Parliamentary service).^[8] London Midland advised that passengers should use National Express West Midlands buses instead.

In December 2008 a two-hourly Worcester Shrub Hill to Gloucester was introduced to improve transport links between the two areas as well as to provide an increased service at Ashchurch for Tewkesbury. This service was withdrawn in December 2009 because of low passenger use.^[9] However, since the December 2009 timetable changes, London Midland still does run a (Parliamentary service) once a week from Birmingham New Street to Gloucester, in the southbound direction only with no northbound return.^[10]

Proposed services

In October 2010 London Midland applied to the Office of Rail Regulation to run a new hourly Birmingham to Preston service from 2016 by diverting every other Birmingham to Liverpool train. The Euston to Crewe service would then be extended to Liverpool to maintain a half-hourly service between Crewe and Liverpool by 2016 as well.^[11][12] This was rejected by the Office of Rail Regulation.^[13] London Midland also sought to run additional evening and Sunday trains between Euston and Crewe, to satisfy what the company says is unmet demand.^[11] From April 2012 London Midland began operating an hourly Euston to Crewe service on Sundays.^[14]

In order to win a contract extension, London Midland has agreed to put on extra services, resulting in an extra 6,600 seats per week.^[15]

Performance

The company stated that it experienced many breakdowns due to the outdated rolling stock it inherited and which it has now replaced,^[16] and has also provided extra seats in the 2014 timetable.^[17]

In Autumn and Winter 2012 many services suffered cancellations owing to a shortage of train operating staff.^[18][19][20]

Performance since the staff shortages have been varied with a low of 76% for the period 10 November - 7 December 2013 to a 92.2% for the period 1–26 April 2014^[21] The average punctuality since the start of the franchise is 87%^[22]

A new partnership agreement between London Midland and transport authority Centro is set to trigger a £10m investment in station improvements across the West Midlands. 'Transforming Rail Travel' is a deal between the two organisations to continue a two-year arrangement with the aim of delivering further enhancements to services and facilities.^[23]

Rolling stock

London Midland retained seven Class 321s for both the Abbey Flyer Watford Junction - St Albans Abbey branch and London Euston-Tring/Milton Keynes/Northampton peak-hour services

London Midland inherited a fleet of Class 150, Class 153, Class 170, Class 321, Class 323 and Class 350/1s from Central Trains and Silverlink.

One of the major franchise commitments was the replacement of the existing fleet of Class 150s and Class 321s.^[24] Upon being awarded the franchise, London Midland ordered a total of 66 new trains of three different types, comprising two Class 139 Parry People Movers, 12 two-carriage and 15 three-carriage Class 172 Turbostars and 37 four-carriage Class 350/2 Desiros.^[25][26][27]

All bar three Class 150s were cascaded to First Great Western (12 x 2 carriage, 2 x 3 carriage) and Northern Rail (18 x 2 carriages) and the Class 321s to First Capital Connect (13) and National Express East Anglia (17).^[28][29] The Class 153, Class 170 and Class 323s have all been refurbished.

The first of the Class 350/2 Desiros arrived in the UK in early October 2008 for testing at the Siemens Northampton depot.^[30] By July 2009 they were all in service.

London Midland was to lose all of its Class 321s, but a change of plan saw it retain seven for use both on the Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey branch line and on peak-hour express services between Northampton/Milton Keynes Central/Tring-London Euston.^[31][32][33] The final seven units moved to Abellio ScotRail in 2015/16,^[34][35][36] and were replaced by seven Class 319s cascaded from Thameslink.^[37][38][39]

The two Class 139 railcars were due to enter service on the Stourbridge line with the start of the new timetable on 15 December 2008. However, problems in testing caused a delay in their introduction, with a replacement bus covering the route following the reallocation of the Class 153 originally used.^[40] The two railcars finally entered full passenger service in June 2009.^[41]

London Midland was to lose all of its Class 150s, but a change in plan saw it retain three Class 150 vehicles as additional capacity, following a statement from the Department for Transport on 10 August 2011. However, London Midland transferred two Class 153s to First Great Western as a result.^[42] The other Class 150s were transferred to First Great Western and Northern Rail.

In 2011 London Midland announced that it would be procuring a further 18 four-coach Class 350 Desiros, eight for itself and ten for sub-lease to First TransPennine Express.^[43] In February 2012 it was announced that 20 Class 350 Desiros had been ordered by London Midland. Ten Class 350/3s entered service with London Midland, and ten lClass 350/4s with First TransPennine Express.^[44][45]

Current fleet

Class	Image	Type	Top Speed		Carriages	Number	Routes Operated	Built
			mph	km/h
139 Parry People Mover		Railcar	40	64	1	2	Stourbridge Town Branch Line[lower-alpha 1]	2008
150/1 Sprinter		DMU	75	121	2	3	Marston Vale Line Birmingham–Hereford	1984
153 Super Sprinter		DMU	75	121	1	8	Marston Vale Line Coventry–Nuneaton Snow Hill Lines Birmingham–Rugeley Birmingham–Shrewsbury	1987–8
170/5 & 170/6 Turbostar		DMU	100	161	2	17	Birmingham–Hereford Birmingham–Shrewsbury Birmingham–Rugeley Snow Hill Lines	1999–2000
					3	6
172/2 & 172/3 Turbostar		DMU	100	161	2	12	Snow Hill Lines	2011
					3	15
319/0, 319/2 & 319/4		EMU	100	161	4	7	Abbey Line Peak hour West Coast Main Line services	1987–8
323		EMU	90	145	3	26	Redditch–Lichfield Trent Valley Wolverhampton–Walsall via Birmingham Birmingham–Birmingham International	1992–3
350/1, 350/2 & 350/3 Desiro		EMU	100 110	161 177	4	77	London – Birmingham Birmingham–Liverpool London – Tring/Milton Keynes London–Crewe London – Northampton Northampton–Birmingham Wolverhampton–Walsall via Birmingham	2004–14

Future fleet

The franchise agreement included the option of replacing the three remaining Class 150/1s in the fleet with six Class 153s in June 2017.^[46] The Northern franchise agreement indicates this option has been taken up, as the London Midland Class 150 units will transfer to Northern in 2017. The Northern franchise agreement also rules out the option of any additional Class 323 trains being leased from Porterbrook to London Midland before 1 January 2019.^[47]

In July 2016, London Midland and the West Midlands Combined Authority announced that it would run a year-long trial of the prototype Vivarail Class 230 DMU on the Coventry to Nuneaton Line.^[48]

Class	Image	Type	Top Speed		Carriages	Number	Routes Operated	In service
			mph	km/h
153 Super Sprinter		DMU	75	121	1	6	Marston Vale Line Birmingham–Hereford	2017
230 D-Train		DEMU	60	97	3	1	Coventry to Nuneaton Line	2016

Past fleet

Former units operated by London Midland include:

Class	Image	Type	Carriages	Number	Built	Withdrawn	Notes
321/4		EMU	4	37	1989-1990	2009-2015	Transferred to: First Capital Connect (13) National Express East Anglia (17) Abellio ScotRail (7)

Depots

Traction

• Tyseley depot in Birmingham maintains London Midland's diesel fleet of classes 153, 170 and 172 units.
• Soho depot in Smethwick maintains London Midland's Class 323 units (purpose built for the 323 units when new).
• Kings Heath Siemens depot in Northampton maintains London Midlands class 319s and 350s.
• The Class 139s have their own small depot where all maintenance is carried out at Stourbridge.
• Worcester depot is used for light maintenance and stabling of diesel traction units for both London Midland and other operators.
• Trains are also stabled (when not in service, refueling or undergoing maintenance) at Leamington Spa, Birmingham New Street, Coventry, Bletchley, Watford, Camden (near London Euston), Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton and Crewe (in relation to train crew or other operational requirements).

Train Crew

• Birmingham New Street
• Birmingham Snow Hill
• Bletchley
• Coventry
• Crewe
• Leamington Spa
• Northampton
• Shrewsbury
• Stourbridge Junction
• Watford Junction
• Wolverhampton
• Worcester Shrub Hill

Future

In April 2016, the Department for Transport announced an Abellio/East Japan Railway Company/Mitsui consortium, Govia and MTR Corporation had been shortlisted to bid for the next franchise. The Invitation to Tender (ITT) was issued in August 2016, with the franchise due to be awarded in June 2017. The successful operator will begin services in October 2017.^[49]

In July 2016 it was announced that MTR Corporation had withdrawn from the bidding process.^[50]

Future franchise requirements

The Invitation to Tender requires that the new franchisee provide:^[51]

• 30,000 extra seats into Birmingham at peak time
• Free wifi on all services by 2019
• Expansion of smart ticketing
• A new hourly service from Birmingham and Wolverhampton to Crewe via Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent
• Increased frequency between Birmingham and Bromsgrove and Birmingham and Rugeley following completion of electrification schemes

See also

• Central Trains
• Central Citylink
• Silverlink

Footnotes

References

External links

• Media related to London Midland at Wikimedia Commons
• London Midland official website

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