TRAIN users in Bromsgrove and Droitwich Spa are set to benefit from an increased rail service this winter.

Regular Sunday morning trains will again link the towns with Worcester and Hereford and restore through services to Birmingham's New Street station after an absence of more than 40 years.

With the start of the new winter timetable on Sunday, December 9, train company London Midland is launching a two hourly service offering three new morning trains each way between Hereford, Worcester and Birmingham New Street.

Extra trains between Worcester and Birmingham will also see the late afternoon/early evening service on offer every hour.

The first new trains will leave Worcester's Shrub Hill station at 8.55am for Birmingham New Street - six hours earlier than at present - with a three hour earlier start up for the Hereford service at 9.02am.

Worcester Foregate Street, Droitwich Spa, Malvern Link and Great Malvern, Colwall and Ledbury stations will also benefit from the upgrade.

Bromsgrove users, who currently have no services at all on Sundays until 2pm, are likely to see the biggest improvement with a doubling of the current level of service with the first train to Birmingham at 9.13am and to Worcester at 10.20am.

All the new and existing New Street trains on Sunday morning will also call at University station, improving access to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and to services on the Cross City line and to Redditch.

The new trains represent the biggest shake-up for Sunday morning services since regular Sunday morning trains were withdrawn during cutbacks in the late 1960s.