Black Country

Around 10,000 passengers a week use the shuttle service

A shuttle service on a stretch of railway in the Black Country has defied the recent bad weather to achieve reliability rates of 99.5%.

The train, developed by Parry People Movers, runs passengers between Stourbridge Junction and Stourbridge Town Centre stations.

Piloted in 2006, the shuttle trains carry 60 people and transport around 10,000 customers every week.

The entire engineering work for the service is done in the West Midlands.

Chairman of Parry People Movers John Parry told BBC WM he was delighted to be providing the public with such a reliable service.

Reliability a must

"That's what it should be. If you depend on public transport you do want the trains to arrive and get you there on time and that's what we've tried to do.

"It's a relatively simple line, just straight from one place to another, but we're very pleased that the entirely new technology has stood up to some of the most testing conditions," he said.

The trains carry 60 people and use environmentally-friendly technology

Running costs for the service are kept to a minimum because of the way the trains are powered.

"A lot of people know about hybrids which are vehicles with two power sources which means you can save an awful lot of money on fuel and capital costs.

Beating the freeze

"What we have come up with is a super-hybrid. We've done it with a combination of propane and a spinning steel fly-wheel, which delivers twice as much power as the engine," Mr Parry added.

The shuttle service has carried around 700,000 passengers so far and kept going during the wintry conditions in December.

"It's a credit to the crews of the railcars because they had to respond to anything that looked like it was going for freeze up and the fitters, the two guys who do the main technical support, did an outstanding job," John Parry said.

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