Clwyd South MP pushing to extend London to Shrewsbury route

Susan Elan Jones believes an extension to the route taken by direct services running between London and Shrewsbury would “be positive” for the area.

This comes after it was announced the direct Shrewsbury to London route would be getting an additional daily journey added to the timetable.

Ms Jones worked with neighbouring constituency members and councils to campaign for the new service.

She now believes it makes sense to extend the service through to Wrexham, with potential stops at stations including Chirk and Ruabon in between.

“We’ve worked across parties and across the border to push for this service,” she said.

“Our hope is to ultimately extend the direct service beyond Shrewsbury – this is very much an aspiration of ours.

“It’s something which we feel would definitely be a positive, especially when you look at what’s happened with the service between London and Shrewsbury.

“There’s a good business case for it. The service in question is a very fast one so it would make sense to bring it further along the line to our region.”

Ms Jones gave mention to the award-winning Friends of Chirk Station group and the upgrades at Chirk station and Ruabon station, and said she feels this gives more reason to bring more trains through the area.

She said: “With upgrades at Chirk and promised upgrades to Ruabon station, and both set to have better accessibility, it makes sense to offer an even better service.

“We have more people using trains in our region – it’s full of areas which are constantly growing.

“There are a lot of opportunities that come with the proposed extension of the service – there’s certainly a chance of people visiting the area.

“We have so much history and heritage here so I’m sure people would want to come and visit.

“We really hope this can happen and it’s something we will keep pushing for.”

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson has also backed the proposed extension to the journey.