West Midlands Railways & Chiltern Railways timetable to change: here is what is changing

There will be some changes to the train timetable from next month in the West Midlands.

West Midlands Railways’ timetables are changing significantly on the Snow Hill lines from Sunday May 21, 2023. The changes will introduce an “easier to understand timetable” for services between Stratford-upon-Avon – Birmingham Snow Hill - Worcester.

Additionally, they’re introducing Class 196 trains to the Leamington Spa – Nuneaton via Coventry line during this timetable and a later last evening service on weekdays between Birmingham New Street – Hednesford.

Here are all the changes that are coming:

On the Stratford-upon-Avon – Birmingham Snow Hill – Worcester (The Snow Hill lines), all train times will change. However, Sunday services are unchanged.

The full summary of the changes can be viewed on the West Midlands Railways website.

Some of the key changes are:

• Additional journey opportunities between Worcester Shrub Hill – Stratford-upon-Avon via Birmingham (1 every hour).
• Increased direct journey opportunities to/from Worcester for Old Hill, Langley Green and Lye.
• An extra train per hour in each direction at Small Heath and Tyseley.
• More consistent 30-minute splits between services at Spring Road, Yardley Wood, Shirley, Whiltocks End, Acocks Green, Solihull, Widney Manor, Olton and Dorridge.
• Consistent hourly services at Lapworth.
• The removal of request stops at Danzey, Wood End, Wootton Wawen and The Lakes (meaning all timetabled trains will call here and you’ll no longer need to let the Senior Conductor know if you wish to board or alight at these stations).

Chiltern Railways

As part of the May timetable change, Chiltern Railways services will also be subject to major change. From Sunday 21 May 2023, Chiltern Railways will not serve Kidderminster. The majority of services will start from / terminate at Birmingham Moor Street

Birmingham – Hereford

Some train times on this route will be subject to small changes.

The last departure from Birmingham New Street to Hednesford will depart later, at 23.22 instead of 23.00.

New Class 196 trains will be introduced to this line from May 2023 onwards.