West Midlands Trains




WM Trains Limited, doing business as West Midlands Trains, is a British state-owned train operating company that operates commuter and local services in the West Midlands region and on the West Coast Main Line between London and the Northwest under two trading names: within the West Midlands region as West Midlands Railway and outside the region as London Northwestern Railway. It assumed responsibility for these services on 1 February 2026 at the conclusion of the outsourcing contract previously placed with Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co.

Services

London Northwestern Railway services

WMT's services along the West Coast Main Line rail corridor are operated under the London Northwestern Railway brand. These services include:
  • services out of ;
  • two minor branch line services in the Southeast;
As of December 2025, the typical off-peak Monday - Saturday London Northwestern Railway service pattern, with frequencies in trains per hour, includes:

West Midlands Railway services

In the West Midlands region, WMT's train services are operated under the West Midlands Railway brand. These services include:
Services on the short Stourbridge Town branch line are run by the open access operator Pre Metro Operations, who operate services on behalf of WMT under the West Midlands Railway brand name.
, the typical off-peak Monday–Saturday West Midlands Railway service pattern, with frequencies in trains per hour, includes:

Political background

In the lead-up to the 2024 [United Kingdom general election], the Labour Party of Keir Starmer committed itself to bring the passenger operations of the British rail network back under state ownership. Following its election win, the government introduced the Passenger Railway Services Act 2024 that received the royal assent in November 2024.
In July 2025, the government announced that DfT Operator would take over responsibility for passenger services from Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co on 1 February 2026.