IT will be the end of the line for diesel trains on the Stourbridge Town to Stourbridge Junction line as Parry People Mover plan to take over.

London Midland have announced the last Class 139 diesel train will stop running on Sunday December 14, but there has been a delay with Parry People Mover taking effect.

Parry People Mover invented by John Parry from Cradley Heath’s JPM Parry Associates, plan to operate two environmentally friendly, light weight trains on the line.

The vehicles use a rechargeable flywheel which stores energy, dramatically reducing carbon dioxide emissions compared to conventional trains.

London Midland Managing Director Steve Banaghan said the delay was disappointing but everything was being done to get the service up and running.

He said: “London Midland, Porterbrook and Network Rail have been working hard with the Parry organisation over the last year to bring the vision of this new technology to reality.

“ Everything is very close to completion, but in order to ensure that the vehicle can complete the final stages of testing and training fully, it has been decided to defer the date of its introduction.

“As with all new innovations, the Parry People Mover has meant that every organisation involved in the project has had to adapt and develop new approaches compared to traditional rail fleet introductions.

“With the countdown now on for our new timetable, we wanted to be sure that there was enough time for the Parry organisation to complete the vehicle testing and pre service operations, this has taken longer than anticipated and so the decision to delay the start has been made. ”

Acting chairman of Stourbridge Line User group (SLUG), Rob Hebron said: “We were hoping the parry people movers would start with the winter timetable on the December 14 but due to heath and safety issues they are not going to be able to do this.

We are disappointed as we would prefer them to be running but health and safety come first.

“We are hoping that it will not be too long before they are up and running.

“A bus service will be put on until the Parry People Movers come in and we hope the bus service will also run on Sunday.

“When the Parry People Movers start the trains should be more frequent with six trains an hour rather than four, which we support.”

The Stourbridge branch services will be operated by a bus until the Parry People Mover is ready to go into service, which is planned to happen in the new year.