West Midlands Trains

West Midlands Trains operates services from London Euston to Liverpool and throughout the entire West Midlands region. West Midlands Trains is divided into two brands: West Midlands Railway for train services in and around Birmingham and London Northwestern Railway for train services on the West Coast Main Line to and from London Euston.

The focus of West Midlands Trains is now on the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, which start on 28 July 2022. These games will be the biggest event ever held in the West Midlands. More than a million tickets are expected to be made available. Significant progress has already been made in upgrading two important stations so that the railway network can accommodate more passengers.

West Midlands Trains expects to introduce the new Class 196 diesel fleet on the Worcester and Shrewsbury routes in 2022; production has been delayed by the pandemic. Further into the future, 333 additional Class 730 electric trains will be used on the Cross-City Line in Birmingham (from 2023) and on the long-distance routes of the West Coast Main Line. These trains are currently being manufactured by Alstom in the Midlands.

Punctuality (PPM) decreased from an average of 88.5% in 2020 to 88.1% in 2021. In the final quarter of 2021, operational performance was negatively impacted by adverse weather conditions due to storm Arwen and storm Barra, as well as an increasing number of train staff in quarantine due to the coronavirus.