In the first week after Great Western Railway (GWR) introduced new Mid Cornwall Metro (MCM) services on Sunday, 17th May, there was a near 25 per cent increase in passenger journeys between Newquay and Par compared with the previous year.
The first Saturday of the new services was even better, with 429 more passengers, which is equivalent to a 50 per cent increase.
Overall, for the week ending Saturday, 23rd May, 726 more passenger journeys were recorded.
On Monday, 1st June, a special celebration event was held at Newquay to celebrate the first phase of the Mid Cornwall Metro, which provides the best train service between Newquay and Par since the 1960s. With the new May timetable, there are now 15 local trains between Par and Newquay on weekdays, Monday to Friday, 14 on Saturdays, and eight on Sundays, which is the most the line has ever seen.
As well as local services, on weekdays during the summer, there are once again direct services from London Paddington to Newquay, bringing the number of weekday services to 17.
The Mid Cornwall Metro is a £57m initiative funded by Cornwall County Council and the UK Government to improve rail links between Newquay, St Austell, Truro, and Falmouth/Penryn, four of Cornwall’s largest towns. By providing sustainable transport links through central Cornwall, residents will have better connections to employment, education, and key services. Pay-as-you-go ticketing is now also available so passengers can be sure of obtaining the best-value ticket on the day they travel.
“It’s brilliant to see so many people already making the most of the new Mid Cornwall Metro between Newquay and Par – and this is just the beginning. This transformative project is all about boosting connections for both local people and tourists between Cornwall’s north and south coasts. That is why the Government invested £50 million into this project, which, in its first fortnight, is already unlocking access to jobs, education, health, leisure and tourism, and creating economic growth. This comes as we accelerate towards Great British Railways – the new, publicly owned company that will build and run a railway the public can rely on and be proud of.”
Rail Minister Peter, Lord Hendy
Responses
Won’t be long until Great Western Railway is also nationalised by DfT and to be part of Great British Railways.
Travelling from Par to Newquay on the first IET on the Sunday 17th May (The first Sinday working for over 40 years) was not without incident as the train was held at the Goss Moor Loop for 35 minutes as there was a point (no plural) failure at Newquay Station. Additionally all passengers were asked to move to the front three coaches as the train was too long for the new platform. Then when the class 175 passed we had to travel 15 minutes to the station to see three Network Rail employees smiling complete with long jim crow bars. We arrived at the original longer platform. Delay compensation was actively promoted on the public address system a number of times.
Yet again the passenger figures prove the point that the doom merchants in the Dft are wrong, its no coincidence that giving the public a decent service pays off, look at The Borders line, Okehampton, the Northumberland line and many more. It’s about time those in charge started realising the fact that a lot of the 1960s and 70s closures were wrong and started reopening more stations and lines.
Travelling recently on the Okehampton line, at Okehampton; experiencing considerable delays by bus connections as traffic parked on both sides of the road a mile away from the station, complete with continuous numbers of SUV´s collecting school children from the station made the bus connection impossible: In fact the bus driver had to get out of the bus and direct hesitant drivers, how to get through modest spaces.Of course the train was missed. Then buffet closed and also, I gather, the Ladies w.c. also closed. Salvation for the Lady bus driver as a passenger had a radar key.