Travelling to Shropshire by train from London's Marylebone station

Wrexham and Shopshire train, Marylebone Station, London. Photo: Catherine MackI have never been to Shropshire before, except en route to North Wales to catch a ferry to Ireland. So when I was invited up for a weekend in Shrewsbury, I started to check out my rail options. As Shrewsbury is just a few miles from the Welsh border, and on the road and rail links to Holyhead, I presumed that the only rail route from London was from Euston, through Birmingham or Crewe, and then change onto another train into the heart of Shropshire. Not so. Shrews indeed, local people have been keeping their Wrexham and Shropshire service out of London’s Marylebone station to themselves, knowing that they were onto a great thing. This gem of a service took me direct to Shrewsbury in three hours and seven minutes, leaving London at 7.33am and costing less than the more obvious inter-city options, even if it does take half an hour longer. This route is, however, direct. 

Sorry Shropshire, but the good news on this service just has to be spread.  Unlike larger train companies, Wrexham and Shropshire is leading the way in offering a flat fare of £40 return to Shrewsbury ( £120 first class), so  none of your peak travel exorbitant prices lark. Book it in advance, and you get even cheaper prices on Standard and First Class seats, the latter with its complimentary full Welsh breakfast, lunch or dinner, coffee, newspapers, free wi-fi and very jolly japes from the stewards, who seemed to know most of the clientele. All food is locally sourced, when possible, with local suppliers including Megan's Kitchen in Llangollen, Covent Garden Fruit & Veg in Wrexham, the local milk man in Chirk who supplies milk, cream and free range eggs and Wrexham’s Village Bakery does the bread. 

This service does feel a bit like a private club, with its station tucked away in a back street in Marylebone, which I hadn’t even heard of since childhood days of Monopoly, the railways stations having been, ironically, replaced by airports in the more recent ‘Here and Now’ version. This Wrexham and Shropshire service is, thankfully, here and now, and has become one of my top choices for ‘Train and cycle’ trips. Unlike its competitors, it can take ten bikes in the drivers’ van, and stopping at places like Leamington Spa, Banbury, Shrewsbury and Llangollen, you have access to many of Sustrans’ national cycle routes, such as the National Route 81 from Shrewsbury to Wellington, starting along the banks of the River Severn which twists elegantly through this medieval town, and out into a landscape of meadows and gently undulating hills. (Read more about cycling in Shrewsbury) With that much room in the bike van, you can bring the whole family’s bike collection as Wrexham and Shropshire has a special Family Saver ticket too, £80.00 return from London to Shrewsbury for two adults and two children, again at any time of day, and you don’t need a Family Railcard to get this rate. If you have a bigger family party,Chirk Aquaduct and Railway Bridge, Photo: Catherine Mack then there are still great rates available with a Family and Friends’ Railcard anyway. 

Wrexham and Shropshire‘s website has plenty of information on things to do and see along their route. My favourite was an afternoon in Chirk, about half an hour west of Shrewsbury into Wales. Not known to many, this small village is part of a World Heritage Site, designated June 2009, and boasting one of Thomas Telford's famous working aquaducts, which still carries barges across scarily elevated, narrow stretches of water. Beside it is Henry Robertson’s equally imposing railway viaduct, and the Chirk Tunnel, which took me on a nine minute walk through darkness to get to the other side, where I rejoined the canal path to the Trevor Basin and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the other part of the Unesco site. A highlight of my trip, and worth a day trip alone. Just another one of Shropshire’s secrets, of which there are many more waiting to be discovered.  

Read more about greentraveller's favourite places to stay in Shropshire and take a couple of minutes to look at Catherine Mack's weekend cycling and hiking in the Shropshire hills.