London Midland


London Midland was a train operating company in England, owned by Govia, which operated the West Midlands franchise between 2007 and 2017.
London Midland operated local services in the West Midlands and surrounding areas through their City sub-brand. They also provided long distance and commuter services on the West Coast Main Line through the Express sub-brand from London Euston to and from the West Midlands, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire. Additionally, services on the Stourbridge Town Branch Line operated by Pre Metro Operations were branded as the London Midland Stourbridge Shuttle.
The franchise was originally due to expire in September 2015; this was extended to March 2016, and then again to October 2017 after London Midland agreed to put on extra trains and improve services. In July 2017, it was further extended until 10 December 2017, when West Midlands Trains took over.

Services

London Midland's services were divided between four groups of routes: London Euston Routes, Birmingham Regional, West Midlands Local and Branch Lines.
London Midland operated several "parliamentary train" stations, where only a handful of trains a day call. These include:
London Midland also operated stations where it operated no services. These stations are only served by CrossCountry, which does not manage any stations. These included:
London Midland's off-peak Monday to Friday routes, with frequencies in trains per hour, included:

Former services

In December 2008, London Midland discontinued the direct service between Walsall and Wolverhampton. Traffic on the route was low, but growing, and there was a campaign to keep the service. The service was a priced option with the new West Midlands franchise, but the Department for Transport decided not to provide funding from December 2008, and as a result the service ceased. There was only one early morning train on Saturdays from Wolverhampton to Walsall.
In December 2008, a two-hourly Worcester Shrub Hill to Gloucester service was introduced to improve transport links between the two towns as well as to provide an increased service at Ashchurch for Tewkesbury. This service was withdrawn in December 2009 because of low passenger use.

Proposed services

In October 2010, London Midland applied to the Office of Rail Regulation to run a new hourly Birmingham to Preston service from 2016 by diverting every other Birmingham to Liverpool train. The Euston to Crewe service would also then be extended to Liverpool to maintain a half-hourly service between Crewe and Liverpool by 2016. This was rejected by the Office of Rail Regulation. London Midland also sought to run additional evening and Sunday trains between Euston and Crewe, to satisfy what the company says is unmet demand. From April 2012, London Midland began operating an hourly Euston to Crewe service on Sundays.
In order to win a contract extension, London Midland had agreed to put on extra services, resulting in an extra 6,600 seats per week.

Performance

The company stated that it experienced many breakdowns due to the outdated rolling stock it inherited and which it has now replaced, and also provided extra seats in the 2014 timetable.
In autumn and winter 2012, many services suffered cancellations owing to a shortage of train operating staff.
Performance since the staff shortages have been varied with a low of 76% for the period 10 November to 7 December 2013 to a 92.2% for the period 1–26 April 2014. The average punctuality since the start of the franchise is 87%
A new partnership agreement between London Midland and transport authority Centro was set to trigger a £10 million investment in station improvements across the West Midlands. 'Transforming Rail Travel' was a deal between the two organisations to continue a two-year arrangement with the aim of delivering further enhancements to services and facilities.
Amidst a background of ongoing rail strikes nationwide, in January 2017, the RMT announced that they would be balloting guards at London Midland for potential industrial action over concerns regarding the introduction of externally-contracted security staff on their trains at the end of December 2016, which the RMT alleged would replace the role of "safety-critical" guards on some services, paving the way for DOO operation. London Midland denied having plans in place to implement DOO operation on their network. Following negotiations with the RMT, London Midland ceased using externally-contracted security staff on their trains on 30 January; as a result, the RMT suspended their ballot on 2 February, averting potential industrial action, before formally declaring the dispute closed.

Rolling stock

London Midland inherited a fleet of Class 150, Class 153, Class 170, Class 321, Class 323 and Class 350/1s from Central Trains and Silverlink.
One of the major franchise commitments was the replacement of the existing fleet of Class 150 and Class 321 units. Upon being awarded the franchise, London Midland ordered a total of 66 new trains of three different types, comprising two Class 139 Parry People Movers, 12 two-car and 15 three-car Class 172 Turbostars and 37 four-car Class 350/2 Desiros.
All but three Class 150 units were cascaded to First Great Western and Northern Rail and the Class 321s to First Capital Connect and National Express East Anglia. The Class 153, Class 170 and Class 323 units have all been refurbished.
The first of the Class 350/2 units arrived in the UK in early October 2008 for testing at the Northampton Kings Heath Siemens Depot. By July 2009, they were all in service.
London Midland was to lose all of its Class 321 units, but a change of plan saw it retain seven for use both on the Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey branch line and on peak-hour express services between Northampton/Milton Keynes Central/Tring-London Euston. The final seven units moved to Abellio ScotRail in 2015/16, and were replaced by seven Class 319s cascaded from Thameslink.
The two Class 139 railcars were due to enter service on the Stourbridge line with the start of the new timetable on 15 December 2008. However, problems in testing caused a delay in their introduction, with a replacement bus covering the route following the reallocation of the Class 153 originally used. The two railcars finally entered full passenger service in June 2009.
London Midland was to lose all of its Class 150 units, but a change in plan saw it retain three Class 150 units as additional capacity, following a statement from the Department for Transport on 10 August 2011. However, London Midland transferred two Class 153 units to First Great Western as a result. The other Class 150 units were transferred to First Great Western and Northern Rail.
In 2011, London Midland announced that it would be procuring a further 18 four-car Class 350 units, eight for itself and ten for sub-lease to First TransPennine Express. In February 2012 it was announced that 20 Class 350 units had been ordered by London Midland. Ten Class 350/3 units entered service with London Midland, and ten Class 350/4 units with First TransPennine Express.
Fleet at end of franchise
, the fleet comprised:
The franchise agreement included the option of replacing the three remaining Class 150/1 in the fleet with six Class 153 units in June 2017. The Northern franchise agreement indicates this option has been taken up, as the London Midland Class 150 units will transfer to Northern in 2017. The Northern franchise agreement also rules out the option of any additional Class 323 units being leased from Porterbrook to London Midland before 1 January 2019.
In July 2016, London Midland and the West Midlands Combined Authority announced that it would run a year-long trial of the prototype Vivarail DMU on the Coventry to Nuneaton Line. In January 2017, this was cancelled by the West Midlands Combined Authority as a fire on the trial unit would have caused the trial to be impossible to complete before the end of the franchise.

Incidents

On 26 November 2015 an early morning commuter service caught fire during the morning commuter rush and had to be evacuated at Lapworth Station.

Demise

In April 2016, the Department for Transport announced that Govia, MTR Corporation and a consortium of Abellio, East Japan Railway Company and Mitsui had been shortlisted to bid for the next franchise. The Invitation to Tender was issued in August 2016 and the franchise was due to be awarded in June 2017. In July 2016 MTR Corporation withdrew from the bidding process.
In July 2017, the franchise was extended until 10 December 2017. In August 2017, the franchise was awarded to the consortium led by Abellio. The new company, named West Midlands Trains, commenced operations on 10 December 2017.

Footnotes