CrossCountry, part of the Arriva Group Train Company, has today announced it will be providing over 400,000 more seats each year for rail users between Exeter and Bristol.
From the 9th of December 2018, CrossCountry will be operating six additional services each weekday to improve connectivity by rail.
These improvements will also help people to travel for both business and leisure purposes.
The new services have been achieved by extending afternoon and evening trains that had previously terminated at Bristol.
A train will depart Bristol to Taunton and Exeter every 30 minutes between 15:45 and 18:45. A new northbound service begins from Newton Abbot at 15:20, helping to increase connections from Torbay with the start of the enhanced local rail service.
What did the officials say?
CrossCountry's Managing Director, Andrew Cooper, said:
“We have been working with the Department for Transport for some time to increase the number of our trains between Bristol and Exeter. We understand the value these services have in helping strengthen the South West's economy, by improving journey opportunities to increase connectivity with the rest of Britain.
“These new services again show Britain's railway investing in improvements for customers and the regions it serves. We will continue to work with local stakeholders such as the Peninsular Rail Task Force, to seek ways to further increase the number of direct train services along this route.”
Councillor Geoff Brown, Chairman of the Peninsular Rail Task Force, added:
“We are pleased that CrossCountry will be introducing these additional train services. In 2016 we launched our report ‘Closing the Gap' setting out our vision for a better and bigger railway in the South West, and called for a half hourly train service linking Devon to Bristol, the Midlands and North. We thank CrossCountry for taking this first step to delivering our goal of a better connected region.”
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I quite agree. 4 carriages on a long distance Scotland to the West Country is an insult to passengers.All long journeys should be in the hands of high speed trains like they used to be
Crosscountry should inherit more Class 43+Mk3s from both GWR and LNER and to operate them on Newcastle-Plymouth, Manchester-Penzance and other long distance routes that Crosscountry occupies.