"We are sorry to announce Britain's worst train" - front page, ST, 8 March 2020
Forget the worst train service. In the Black Country, on the western side of Birmingham, we have the worst railway service in the middle 56 Kms of the Worcester, Black Country, Derby railway. Not a single train has turned up in 50 years. Yet, the railway line is called by Network Rail, "of national strategic significance". Not one train, even though train travel took off in the mid 1990s and, as road and railway congestion has worsened in our densely populated, over two million, West Midlands region.
Even the latest Ordnance Survey map indicates that this principal, mainline railway is in use. It is not. Since the 1980s, a Metro tram extension has been promised on only 6 Kms in the middle of the unused 56 Kms that runs alongside or near to the traffic choked M5 and M6. Main works start next year on the tram to break up the mainline but, still not a single useful commuter or regional train on the remaining 50 Kms to connect with the short, isolated tram line. The "bus on rails" trams will prevent the return of intercity trains that will always be needed, even with 'the too fast to stop', HS2 on the eastern side of Brum.
Therefore, the one million population of the congested Black Country wins the prize, easily for having "the cold, hard truth of Britain's worst service" (ST 8 March).
Explanatory map, here courtesy of the national railway lobbying group, 'Railfuture'. The tram line is planned from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill; both towns are marked on the map:
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