The Shrewsbury Express [prev. Snowbound Express]

Very Positive (32 ratings)

LevelUp Escapes

Escape room
IRL

Mark as done to rate

After a wild night out in Birmingham, you're desperate to make it home to the calm, comforting embrace of Shrewsbury. Your golden ticket? The Shrewsbury Express—a train so iconic, so reliable, it's never missed a departure in its history. Until now. As you arrive at New Street Station, everything is chaos. Trains are delayed, announcements are nonsense, and the vending machine just sparked. But somehow, things are even worse onboard the Shrewsbury Express. Doors are locking at random. Alarms are blaring. A conductor's been flung off somewhere near Wolverhampton. And poor Colin, the normally composed train manager, is clinging to his clipboard like it’s a liferaft. Behind it all? A suspiciously slow and slime-covered competitor: Transport for Snails. They've been scheming in the shadows, waiting for the first sign of trouble to claim the Shrewsbury slot as their own. If the train doesn’t get back on track in 75 minutes, they’ll take over the route—and you’ll be crawling home at a snail’s pace (literally). This hilarious, family-friendly escape room adventure throws you headfirst into British transport mayhem, with ingenious puzzles, colourful characters, and a chaotic storyline where even the train can’t be trusted.Save the Express. Stop the snails. Or get ready for rail replacement… forever.

2-8
75 mins
Hard
Not scary

Awards

Best of Morty (2025) - Morty
Nominee (2025) - TERPECA

Ratings

All ratings (32)

Very Positive

Gameplay: Mostly Positive

Atmosphere: Mostly Positive

Customer service: Mostly Positive

Reviews

jordanthecoder

13 escape rooms

We had a fantastic time at LevelUp escapes. The theming and immersion were fantastic. The set was well built with different rooms and tasks that included the set! The puzzles were fun with the games leader/live actors being on hand if we needed help or if something in the room didn’t work as expected! If you like high tech rooms then this one is for you!

Gameplay

Atmosphere

It was beautifully built with live actors and brilliant immersion! For us who are neurodivergent it was a little overwhelming with all the lights sounds and trying to hear the actors!

Customer service

The staff were fantastic and polite!

Ideal number of players

Jul 11, 2026 | Experienced Jul 11, 2026

techieslikepie

42 escape rooms

This room was entirely different to every other escape room that we've done right from the outset, and I'm not entirely convinced that was a good thing. While the theming and the live actors were excellent, the puzzles were light, and at least three things in the room didn't work as they were supposed to. The feeling that we left with was bewilderment, rather than accomplishment.

Gameplay

The goal was often unclear

Atmosphere

Excellent theming

Customer service

Particularly interesting or different

Yes

Yes, but not necessarily in a good way.

Story

Difficulty

Medium

Game tech

Mechanical

Ideal number of players

We did this room with four people, and the start was very cramped.

Scary

Not scary

Was anything broken?

Yes

Live actors

Yes

Physically active

Somewhat

Easy to find location

Yes

Safety

Yes

Mar 28, 2026

Welshelf13

68 escape rooms

Played this game after lots of recommendations from FB and was 100% worth it! From the very start it was different to anything we’ve done before - great story and the set was impressive! There is a live actor but not scary (we don’t play scary/horror rooms) and he was lots of fun so don’t be put off if you see that. We loved this room, may be the favourite one we’ve done and cannot recommend it enough!

Gameplay

Absolutely brilliant, not played anything like it to date, was novel and a lot of fun!

Atmosphere

Brilliant set design, props were excellent and whole experience was immersive

Customer service

The 2 members of the team we met were great!

Particularly interesting or different

Yes

Very different to anything we’ve played so far

Story

Great story that flowed well

Difficulty

Hard

Game tech

Mechanical

Ideal number of players

Depending on experience would say 3+ but we did it as a pair so is doable

Scary

Not scary

Minimum age

Was anything broken?

Live actors

Yes

Yes but they don’t scare you so don’t be put off - the character is there to help!

Physically active

Somewhat

Easy to find location

Yes

Parking

Easy

Oct 15, 2025 | Experienced Oct 15, 2025

Niniannon

107 escape rooms

Loved this room, it was great fun. There are live actors involved and they did a great job. A good mix of puzzles and locks, we completed it as a team of 2 but there is enough space for larger teams. Would recommend.

Gameplay

Atmosphere

Customer service

Story

Sep 28, 2025

phoenix

124 escape rooms

Loved this room. Took my 15 year old son and it was perfect! So much effort and care. Games masters were brilliant. 10/10

Gameplay

Atmosphere

Customer service

Particularly interesting or different

Yes

Story

Difficulty

Medium

Was anything broken?

Live actors

Yes

Physically active

Somewhat

Easy to find location

Yes

Parking

Easy

Sep 14, 2025 | Experienced Sep 13, 2025

Scoobs83

87 escape rooms

Amazing room - frenetic and a completely bonkers. The puzzles are very theme appropriate if not the most interesting - however from an experience perspective this room is incredible and the actors/hosts absolutely deliver and make it even crazier and more engaging than it already is! A must do room!!!

Gameplay

Atmosphere

Customer service

Game tech

High tech

Aug 16, 2025 | Experienced Aug 9, 2025

marydoll

452 escape rooms

This game has it all. This was my 69 year old mom’s first escape room with actors (she’s done plenty before) and it was the perfect introduction for her. She says hands done it’s the best room she’s ever done. I’d say it’s one of the best, if not THE best UK room I’ve done, at least in a long, long time. The mix of interactive elements, actor elements, puzzles, set, story - I absolutely loved it. A real, sparkly, weighty hidden gem of a game. A huge thank you to the team behind it.

Gameplay

Very novel, the most fun had in a room for a long time, possible the most fun ever had in a room in the UK. It was fantastic.

Atmosphere

While relatively simple to some degree, the set, lighting by, tech, props, music and acting meant the experience was immersive and adrenaline fuelled every step of the way.

Customer service

The staff were amazing and really made the experience what it was.

Particularly interesting or different

Yes

Lots of interactive elements, several incredibly fun and joyful elements and several elements of surprise.

Story

The links to the local area and topical issues were spot on.

Difficulty

Medium

Game tech

High tech

This had elements of both which fitted in with the story brilliantly.

Ideal number of players

Scary

Not scary

Minimum age

Was anything broken?

Live actors

Yes

Actors were there to move the story along and they did this amazingly.

Physically active

Somewhat

Not everyone has to be active, but at least one of the team needs to be, and be okay with enclosed spaces.

Accessibility

The game didn’t seem to be wheelchair accessible but is accessible on other counts. A couple of puzzles rely on colour vision.

Easy to find location

Yes

Located in a shopping centre - very easy to get to.

Parking

Easy

Plenty of town centre parking.

Jun 21, 2025 | Experienced Jun 21, 2025

Samsham

261 escape rooms

An absolute hidden gem of a room. A truly outstanding experience in every way, immersive, imaginative and hilarious with great hosts. Go and play this game, you will not be disappointed

Gameplay

Atmosphere

Customer service

Particularly interesting or different

Yes

Story

Difficulty

Medium

Game tech

High tech

Ideal number of players

Scary

Not scary

Minimum age

Was anything broken?

Live actors

Yes

Physically active

Very

Accessibility

Colour locks

Easy to find location

Yes

Parking

Medium

Jan 4, 2025

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