GWR cancels South West services because of unreliable trains

Great Western Railway has confirmed it is ending five trips per week on the main railway line through Cornwall over persistent issues with a fleet of trains. From today (Monday, September 7) five weekday services between Penzance and Plymouth or Exeter will be cancelled. The train operator says this is because of issues with its Class 175 fleet. The 26 trains had been used by Transport for Wales and spent two years in storage before being used by GWR. Of these, 15 have required "more recommissioning work than expected" since returning to service. GWR said it faced "reliability issues with some of [its] trains", which had been responsible for 15 percent of delays and 14 percent of cancellations since they were introduced in May. National director at campaign group Railfuture Roger Blake described the cancellations as "an unfortunate step back" before hopefully taking "a couple of steps forward". The new temporary timetable is set to last until December 12 while the trains are repaired at the Laira depot in Plymouth, but GWR hopes it won't be needed for that long. The services which will not run will include: 07:43 Penzance to Exeter St David's 11:27 Exeter St David's to Penzance 13:39 Plymouth to Penzance 14:50 Penzance to Plymouth 15:52 Penzance to Plymouth There are also some changes to Saturday services, and a number of other journeys may visit addition stations or start further along the line. Visit the GWR website for a complete list of the amendments.