{"id":549317,"date":"2025-11-04T21:48:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/549317\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T21:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:48:18","slug":"plans-to-reconnect-swindon-to-birmingham-by-rail-unveiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/549317\/","title":{"rendered":"Plans to reconnect Swindon to Birmingham by rail unveiled"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Plans to reconnect Swindon with Birmingham by rail have been unveiled.\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/MC-SWINTON-OCT24-24-1200x800.jpg\"\/>    <\/p>\n<ul class=\"post-meta\">\n<li>Swindon &amp; Wiltshire Economy<\/li>\n<li>Tuesday November 4 2025<\/li>\n<li\/>\n      <\/ul>\n<p>Plans to reconnect Swindon with Birmingham by rail have been unveiled.<\/p>\n<p>It has been 20 years since direct trains ran between Swindon with Birmingham. Since the early 2000s rail passengers to the Midlands have had to change at Gloucester or Cheltenham.<\/p>\n<p>But a direct, hourly service could soon be reinstated through the \u00a31.75 billion Midlands Rail Hub project.<\/p>\n<p>Swindon North MP Will Stone this week met with stakeholders to hear how the initiative could deliver up to 130 extra trains per week from Swindon to Birmingham.<\/p>\n<p>He was joined by joined by Chris Watts, Swindon Council\u2019s cabinet member for transport, Cllr Fay Howard, Mayor of Swindon, Tom Lydon, head of public affairs at Great Western Railway, and Adam King, head of policy and partnerships from England\u2019s Economic Heartland.<\/p>\n<p>The project will also deliver a jobs boost \u2013 more than 12,750 roles are expected to result from the Midlands Rail Hub\u2019s first phase, which will be primarily benefit travellers in the West Midlands, South Wales and the Southwest has been funded. Midlands Rail Hub is a \u00a31.75 billion blueprint for faster, better and more frequent connections across the region.<\/p>\n<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced she is funding the first phase of the rail upgrade in the spending review, which sets government budgets for the coming years. The scheme was also mentioned in the recent government 10-year infrastructure strategy.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of August it was announced that the project had taken a major step forward to delivery, with identification of the preferred alliance partners including VolkerRail, Laing O\u2019Rourke, AtkinsR\u00e9alis, Siemens Mobility, and Network Rail.<\/p>\n<p>Will Stone, Member of Parliament for Swindon North, said: \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic that Swindon could be benefiting from the Midlands Rail hub expansion. We\u2019re a town built on connection via the railways, and so it\u2019s great to see Swindon getting an hourly service between a fellow industrial town like Birmingham.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis connection will improve access for residents across the country, with two million extra seats available for passengers passing along the railway between Swindon and Birmingham each year, forging stronger links between businesses and communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInnovative projects like the Midlands Rail hub prove that investments in our railways, fully funded by the Chancellor, are transformative for communities, bringing new jobs and skills to areas across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swindon &amp; Wiltshire Economy Tuesday November 4 2025 Plans to reconnect Swindon with Birmingham by rail have been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,41909,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-549317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-railways","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115493634325203971","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}