CANBER - Campaign Against New Beeching Report

Here is the response from the Government to our petition regarding the withdrawal of the Walsall-Wolverhampton passenger rail service (link below) :
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/walsallrail

"The rail service between Walsall and Wolverhampton operates at hourly intervals taking 15 minutes for the 7 mile journey. It is a shuttle service requiring one single car train to operate it.

In developing the specification for the West Midlands franchise, the Department for Transport (DfT) identified that the Walsall - Wolverhampton service offered poor value for money. In the consultation document published in July 2006, it proposed that the service would not be included in the base franchise specification but it invited Centro to consider funding its retention as an increment. At this time the service was proposed to be withdrawn in December 2007, but DfT later extended this to December 2008 to give Centro more time to consider.

Although the reliability of the service has improved, according to figures produced by Centro it still carries an average of fewer than ten passengers per journey and therefore still offers poor value for money. A decision on whether to continue to fund the service rests with Centro but this is now dependent on whether the train operator can secure the necessary rolling stock."

We obviously find this response very disappointing indeed. As with Doleham, Three Oaks and Winchelsea (see http://canber.co.uk/?q=node/48) the DfT are clearly seeking to pass the buck onto others.

However, we will continue to help and support those seeking to find a solution to this issue.