Rugby to get its own flying Scotsman with record-breaking Glasgow link

Rugby railway station will be getting two new services

Virgin Trains has announced two extra services will be stopping at the town’s railway station on Mondays to Saturdays, giving extra connections with the north.

These will use the direct Trent Valley route rather than going via Birmingham making the journey times impressive.

Indeed, coming south, is an additional direct service from Glasgow leaving at 10.40 and arriving at Rugby at 14.24.

This will give a fastest ever time from Glasgow to Rugby of 3 hours 44 minutes.

The other new service will be the 13.04 from Rugby to Chester, which also offers a quicker connection to Glasgow by changing at Crewe.

Rugy Rail Users Group chair Stephanie Clifford said: “This is good news for Rugby. Direct trains to the north-west and Scotland have been a priority for Rugby Rail Users Group since 2004.

“These extra services are a small but significant gain after many years of being cut off from the north-west during the day.

“We hope to see many Rugby rail passengers make use of these new faster trains and hope this paves the way for more services on this route in the future.”

The town lost a number of long-standing direct services in the last decade making many trips to the north-west longer and more complicated, so theusers group has welcomed this positive response from Virgin Trains.

It hopes this will lead to more direct services to the north and will continue to push for more stops.