Direct London rail service starts

Chiltern plans to improve on the new service to London

The first direct train link from Kidderminster to London for more than 100 years, was started by Chiltern Trains on Monday.

The new service means that passengers no longer have to travel via Birmingham.

Initially the service will run eight times a day between Kidderminster and Marylebone, in just under three hours.

The Midlands Rail Passengers Council says the train will give people more opportunities to work and socialise in London.

Improve times

The new route has also been welcomed by the Wyre Forest MP, Dr Richard Taylor, who took the first train to Parliament on Monday morning.

Chiltern Trains says it plans to invest more money to improve times on the route.

The company's managing director Steve Murphy said: "We are always very, very careful at Chiltern to only publish times we are pretty sure we can deliver, but we will carry on investing over the years.

"One of the things we are looking to do is to invest in the obstruction of signalling to get those journey times down as well."

It is hoped that an hourly service will be available to commuters as early as next summer.