West Worcestershire MP Dame Harriett Baldwin has met with the boss of West Midland Trains to discuss a serious decline in the rail service between Worcester and Hereford.
Managing director Ian McConnell travelled by train to Malvern to brief the MP on the troubled service which is seeing one in ten services cancelled owing to signal issues and the availability of train drivers.
Dame Harriett called for the urgent meeting following a significant increase in complaints, especially from parents who were concerned that their children travelling to and from Hereford for college, were being stranded at the station.
The pair discussed the challenges of improving working practices to ensure that more drivers are available to work. The Worcester depot has a quarter of the workforce unable to work at the moment leaving weekend cover almost impossible to deliver.
Dame Harriett said:
“I am grateful that Ian took the time to come to Malvern to meet with me and he shares my frustration that the Worcester to Hereford service is the worst in his business.
“I understand that the recent pay deal agreed by the Government will make it even harder to encouraged staff to do overtime or cover holidays and I will be writing to the Secretary of State for Transport setting out my concerns.
“We both want a fit-for-purpose rail service and we agreed that leaving children stranded in Hereford is unacceptable. The company has pledged extra measures to ensure the resilience of this service including planning bus coverage, and it has met with the Hereford education providers to brief them one to one.
“There are now more than enough trained drivers but the terms and conditions on which they are employed are clearly restraining a 21st century rail service.
“It is just another warning sign that we are heading back to the bad old days of union-controlled industry and I will be urging the Secretary of State for Transport to help the train services to improve, not slump.”
Photo: West Midlands Trains managing director Ian McConnell with Dame Harriett Baldwin MP.