Nuneaton MP Marcus Jones has welcomed the plan proposed by Virgin Trains to create a new service between London Euston and Blackpool which will call at Nuneaton. The plan has been agreed by the Department for Transport and Virgin Trains are now seeking the necessary clearance from the Office of the Rail Regulator and Network Rail to run the additional services.

This will mean a new fast service heading north to Blackpool will call at Nuneaton in the morning off-peak and the service heading south from Blackpool will call at Nuneaton in the afternoon. Marcus, who has campaigned tirelessly for the reintroduction of fast off-peak services, has welcomed this proposal as a real step in the right direction for Nuneaton passengers and declared that we are now starting to get onto the right track.

Commenting, Marcus said: “I am extremely glad that Virgin Trains are proposing this new service and it is excellent that the Department for Transport are supporting them in this move. I have been lobbying ministers for this and it’s good to see that they are listening.

“This is a small step in the right direction and I will continue to lobby Government Ministers to bring even better fast off-peak services to Nuneaton in the future.

“This fantastic news together with the improved faster London Midland service between Euston and Nuneaton, and the extra 30,000 seats that are being introduced on the Virgin fast services really does show that the current Government are supporting better quality rail services for the people of Nuneaton.”