Last week, Pre Metro Operations Ltd (PMOL), operators of the Stourbridge Shuttle, were delighted to welcome Black Country Chamber CEO, Sarah Moorhouse, and well-known public affairs consultant, Jan Jennings, to experience the Stourbridge Shuttle in person.

Businesses based in and around Stourbridge will doubtless be aware that right on their doorstep is the smallest and most reliable Train Operating Company in England, Pre Metro Operations Ltd (PMOL).

Running for the past 15 years, PMOL have been connecting Stourbridge Junction with the Stourbridge Bus Station as part of our much vaunted ‘last mile integration’’ approach, something which remains far too elusive for most transport users.

Sarah Moorhouse, as Black Country Chamber of Commerce CEO, recognises the huge pressures on business as they look to move people and goods to customers in a timely manner and seek to improve productivity. A big challenge especially given the area’s huge car dependence, with 83% of all journeys in the Black Country made by car.

Over the past fifteen years, the Stourbridge Shuttle has carried over 7m passengers and boasts a 99.6% reliability track record achieved via 214 trips each day over a 19-hour period.  The company employ 18 drivers from the local area who take great care to ensure everyone is able to access and leave the trains in a safe, reliable and sustainable way — whether elderly shoppers or young mums with toddlers and pushchairs.  This is a service which puts customers at its heart and is an approach which is crucial to the future prosperity of the Region

Their small lightweight trains also represent a world first for Stourbridge.  The Stourbridge Shuttle is a fine example of Black Country designed-and-made engineering in action, not an import from overseas like so many of our West Midlands’ trams and trains. Every day they smooth the course for so many of our commuter’s journeys.

The Shuttle is powered using a small LPG gas engine, around 40% cleaner than diesel, supplemented by a flywheel utilising 100% recyclable energy. This stores kinetic energy captured from both braking and when the train travels down the gradient to the bus station.  This energy is later released to provide an extra boost when the train is returning to Stourbridge Junction.

At 12 tonnes each, the railcars are much lighter than the more widely used Metros which each weigh in at around 40 tonnes and cost, ‘all-in’, 10 times more to build and operate than the Stourbridge Shuttle equivalent.

Given their exemplary track record, their reliability and affordability, you might wonder why they’ve never been used elsewhere, not just across the West Midlands, but across the whole of the UK. Surely there’s a use for this lightweight, reliable and highly affordable rail solution?

Well, although the smallest UK Train Operating Company (TOC),
Pre Metro Operations Ltd have ‘Big Ambitions’ and see the answer to this question as a resounding ‘yes’!  To support the growth of the PMOL footprint, in 2020, they researched the market across the Black Country, particularly Dudley, collecting evidence and insights by surveying both residents and business travel needs.

1,438 residents and 322 firms responded, 52 face-to-face, involved in retail, leisure, professional services, hospitality and industrial manufacturing. 87% favoured using an extended service from Stourbridge to Merry Hill and Dudley – an option enabling far greater modal shift, relieving congestion, stimulating the local economy and benefitting hospitality, leisure, retail and providing greater access to health and education facilities.

To minimise required capital investment, PMOL are proposing sharing the existing lightly used freight line from Stourbridge to Canal Street, Brierley Hill, and possibly from there onwards to Merry Hill and Dudley Bus Interchange, a proposal which envisages sharing the Metro line.

Local businesses are very much on side. Mike Hill, MD, HCM Engineering states:

“The traffic is horrendous in the local area especially the Pedmore Road to Merry Hill.  If we are ever going to get anywhere near to our Nett Zero targets, then something needs to be done, plus it would greatly help local businesses.”

Brewer, Alex Hill at Green Duck Beer agrees:

“Any way that transport links can be improved to support local business and hospitality is a good decision. The Midlands is far behind so many other urban areas in how it moves its population around.”

Steve Hargreaves, Operations Manager, Merry Hill, welcoming over 18 million visitors each year, overwhelmingly arriving by car, states: “(This option) will give people more choice than just the bus and better flexibility.”

PMOL are actively looking for £30m investment to turn these plans into a reality. They already have Network Rail support. With twelve stations planned along the line providing access to businesses, health, education and leisure facilities, shopping centres including Merry Hill and Dudley Town centre, the line is a tangible means of delivering modal shift whilst supporting Net Zero goals for the Black Country. New vehicle options will deliver far greater passenger capacity and even greater sustainability credentials, being powered either by pure battery or wholly renewable fuels.

Pre Metro Operations Ltd are targeting something special for the Black Country – another world first – their very own “Dudley Dasher”, designed-and-made in the Midlands, as an affordable, sustainable vehicle produced by local people and serving local business needs.

George, Stourbridge Junction’s much-loved mascot cat (who has his own ‘google marker’, no less) is suitably impressed and, perhaps the ‘Dudley Dasher’ will soon become widely appreciated as the Black Country’s very own cat’s whiskers!

This article was guest-authored by Beverley Nielsen, business consultant, for Pre Metro Operations Ltd., supporting the Centre for the New Midlands as a Research Associate, and a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Brexit Studies, Birmingham City University. It will be featured in the upcoming edition of Prosper Magazine.