RAIL passengers travelling between Worcestershire and Birmingham can expect a more comfortable ride on busier services from next week.

Central trains is introducing a new timetable on Sunday, May 2, together with more seats.

The company, which is part of the National Express Group, is adding an extra carriage to its 5.19pm train from Birmingham New Street to Worcester and Hereford, meaning 76 more seats.

The 7.35am service from Hereford to Worcester and Birmingham New Street, as well as the 12.59pm and 4.59pm trains from Birmingham to Worcester and Hereford, will also offer more seats as the company will be using a different model of train with extra capacity for that route.

Central Trains has also improved its 9.15am service from Worcester Foregate Street to Birmingham Snow Hill, which will now call at Blakedown and Hagley to fill a morning gap in that service.

The National Express Group has acquired nine extra fast, modern trains which provide another 36 carriages across the Central Trains Network. These will help to provide more capacity and some will be kept on standby as replacements if they are needed.

Central Trains managing director Steve Banaghan said improvements to the services had created extra demand for travel between Hereford, Worcester and Birmingham.

He said: "We have listened to our passengers, who tell us we need to tackle capacity. I am delighted that next week we will introduce a further improvement in the journey for our passengers by providing these extra seats each day on our busiest trains to Hereford and Worcester."