Avanti West Coast: Direct trains from Shropshire to London cut

Direct trains between Shropshire and London are to be suspended from Sunday.

Travellers from Shrewsbury, Wellington and Telford Central have been advised to use connecting services from Wolverhampton.

Telford and Wrekin Council said the decision came with "no notice, no consultation and no date by which the service will be restored".

Avanti West Coast said "severe staff shortages" as result of the wider strikes was behind the changes.

Council leader Shaun Davies, however, said local people had been "forgotten".

"We have written today to the Secretary of State calling for the government to urgently review and reverse this decision," Mr Davies said.

"We are extremely disappointed."

Although there are currently only two direct trains a day connecting the county with London, they were introduced after intense lobbying by Shropshire businesses and politicians.

Telford and Wrekin Council said the decision would also put more pressure on other (non-direct) services run by Transport for Wales (TFW) and West Midlands Trains (WMT), which is still operating a reduced timetable.

Those operators have also recently seen service cuts around strikes by the Aslef and RMT unions.

In a statement, Avanti West Coast said it was suspending ticket sales on direct services from 14 August to 11 September "while the new timetable is finalised".

Like other operators, it depends heavily on overtime to keep trains running and attributed the service cuts to drivers "making themselves unavailable for overtime in a co-ordinated fashion, and at short notice".

It said the decision was "not taken lightly" and apologised for "frustration and inconvenience".

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