The second week of December marked the first anniversary of our new direct services from London to Shropshire and Blackpool. We have been overwhelmed with the support we have received from the local communities, with both routes showing a healthy growth in customer numbers.

The service to Shrewsbury in fact has exceeded expectations, with an additional 30k customer journeys made between Shropshire and the capital in the past 12 months, helped in no small part by the positive coverage ‘rail’ has received in the local media in this time.

We will continue to work hard to develop both routes and explore options to build on this success in future timetables.