Integration Frustration (1)

Birmingham to Bewdley

Easy peasy innit?

You get a train to Kidderminster (map upper right) and change there for a train to Bewdley.

Once upon a time there was a good (?) train service as seen in this extract from a 1930s working timetable.

Don't try to understand it; such a table included paths for goods trains, gave timings at places which weren't stations (e.g Kidderminster Junction) and was not for public use. Basically, Bewdley was an 8 minute ride from Kidderminster.

Trains also ran via Bewdley to Bridgnorth.

Trains to Bewdley, once the haunt of the Great Western Railway ...

... finally ended in 1970.

The former rail routes are now served by Diamond Bus, with the 292 ... 

... taking the Ludlow route ...

... and the 125 ...

... replacing trains to Bridgnorth.

It would be nice to think that the two routes gave an integrated 30 minute headway between Kidderminster and Bewdley, thus encouraging easy-to-remember local travel. But the 292 offers a sort-of potty 45 minute headway!

Hey ho!

But one of the rail routes via Bewdley is now the home of the Severn Valley Railway; a typical summer timetable is given below.

But, leaving the SVR (expensive!) to the tourists and enthusiasts, how might you get from Birmingham to Bewdley today?

You have a train every 30 minutes from Birmingham Moor Street and Snow Hill ...

... operated by West Midlands Railway.

But to get to the Bewdley bus is less than easy. Kidderminster bus station (big bus icon below far left) ...

... is a good trot from the railway (above bottom right). Traveline suggests a 13 minute walk which fbb thinks is optimistic - it would be VERY optimistic for an arthritic octogenarian.

So it is a walk to the bus, therefore a lengthy effort from railway station to Bewdley!

That is roughly half an hour for what was once an eight minute train ride!

You wouldn't want to make the effort regularly!

But someone has had a jackpot idea!

Why not run trains from Kidderminster to Bewdley?

So they are going to have a go!

Beginning on 1 September 2026, the trial will see heritage steam and diesel trains operating over the three-and-a-half-mile section of the Severn Valley Railway between Kidderminster and Bewdley, connecting with West Midlands Railway services to and from Birmingham. Passengers will change trains at Kidderminster to complete their journey.

The arrangement is believed to be one of the first of its kind in the UK, with main line rail ticket holders travelling over part of their journey on a heritage railway, hauled by heritage locomotives and operated by heritage railway staff.

Yahoo! Integrated ticketng!

The trial forms part of a longer-term project to assess the potential for introducing regular passenger rail services between Bewdley and the wider West Midlands rail network. If demand is demonstrated, it could pave the way for selected services that currently terminate at Kidderminster to be extended to Bewdley in future.

So the ultimate wheeze would be for West Midlands DMUs to run through to Bewdley.

The weekday commuter service will operate on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the trial, with two morning departures from Bewdley at 6.40am and 7.40am. After connecting at Kidderminster, passengers will arrive at Birmingham Snow Hill at 7.46am and 8.46am respectively, with a total journey time of just over an hour.

Evening return services will leave Birmingham Snow Hill at 4.46pm and 5.46pm, arriving back in Bewdley at 5.57pm and 7.02pm following a change at Kidderminster.

The change at Kidderminster is far from ideal.

Above is the relatively new West Midlands Railway station. A Bewdley commuter will need to trek via car parks and in to the splendid SVR building ...

... hardly a slick operation.

The SVR has its long standing DMU available in regular use on heritage journeys ...

... and more recently they have bought a spare!

But one on-line account of the plan reveals ...

... The SVR expects its resident Class 108 DMU to be used for the morning trains, with two inbound workings arriving back in Bewdley at 17.57 and 19.02. These are to be steam hauled when possible, SVR says ...

... presumably integtrated with the Heritage timetable on full operating days.

And in a final fbb ramble; didn't the Keighley and Worth Valley try diesel "commuter" trains way back? Maybe not with through tickets however?

The idea does reappear every so often.

And didn't the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch run a train for local schoolchildren?

The kiddies are commuters, after all.

This is from an on-line item from 2012.

As a former Southlands Student who used the school train service, I remember when it used to be 15-16 coaches in length and not a spare seat to be had! Remember the days when if no's 12 or 14 were unavailable then there was 2 steam locos at the front and one more banking!

Anyway, today I was stopped at Jefferstone Lane level crossing for the service to pass and it had 4 coaches, of which the first and third coaches were completely empty and the second coach had 5 people in it and the last just one person. My question being is this cost effective to the railway to run?

Indeed, it is the same question we might also ask of the Severn Valley Railway.

 Next Herefotd Happenung blog : Thur 6 Aug