Train bosses criticised as new plans will go to waste

TRAIN bosses have been criticised after it emerged that a new service due to double the amount of trains between Truro and Falmouth will cut the number of carriages per journey from two to one.

Improvements to the rail link costing £7.8 million will be wasted if First Great Western halves the number of carriages on the line, according to prospective Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Terrye Teverson, who has called on the company to run double carriages on the new half-hourly service.

The improvement scheme on the Falmouth Branch Line has been jointly funded by European Regional Development Agency, Cornwall County Council and Network Rail.

The extra 400 metre-long loop of track at Penryn Station will allow two trains to run simultaneously. This should mean double the current service, but it has come to light that the train operator is planning to increase the frequency while cutting carriages.

Mrs Teverson said: "From May 18 2009 First Great Western are planning to run trains with only one carriage every 30 minutes, instead of the current two carriages every hour.

"Millions of pounds have been invested to improve this rail link and encourage people to get out of their cars and onto the train."

"At the moment First run an hourly service with two carriages. They now plan to run a half hourly service but with only one carriage.

Crammed

"The whole point of investing in the railway was to make the service better. At peak times now there will be more people crammed into one carriage – which was not what millions of pounds of tax-payers money was supposed to be used for."

Mrs Teverson has now raised the issue with Julian Crowe, regional general manager for First Great Western, and route director Malcolm Drury.

Mrs Teverson pointed out that the second carriage was sometimes taken off and used on the St Ives branch line in the summer.

This means commuters using the Falmouth Branch Line are crammed into one carriage. Mr Drury said First Great Western was going to see how things progressed and may put on an additional carriage if it was needed.

Mrs Teverson added: "Parking is a huge problem in many parts of Falmouth and Penryn. The development of University College Falmouth and continual growth of the area will only see this problem persisting – that's why we need to invest in greener ways of travelling to work and college.

"We want First to recognise this and work with us in promoting the service, getting more people to leave the car at home and use the rail links.

"If they come and can't get on the train a massive opportunity to promote train travel will have been completely wasted."