Staff absences spark temporary reduced train timetable for Cornwall
GWR bosses say more and more staff are off for Covid-related reasons
Last updated 6th Jan 2022
Parts of Cornwall are facing a reduced train timetable because of Covid-related staff absences.
Great Western Railway says it is only temporary and is in response to higher than usual levels of staff being absent or self-isolating due to coronavirus.
Services along the St Ives branch line will be affected along with the Penzance to Paddington route.
A handful of GWR Penzance-Plymouth services will be cancelled and some of the Penzance-Paddington services are starting or terminating at Plymouth.
There will be about nine amendments on Sunday and four on weekdays.
The St Ives branch line is more impacted, with services cut to hourly.
The temporary timetable reduction comes into effect from Saturday (8th January) ensuring that the rail company can provide the majority of its usual, planned trains. Bosses say this will give customers confidence about services so they can plan ahead.
The reduced timetable will be updated on a weekly basis and is only expected to be in operation for a short time – until the impact of the Omicron variant has lessened.
GWR Managing Director Mark Hopwood said: “We are taking some sensible measures using the experience, knowledge and good processes we have developed over the past 20 months to give customers confidence in our timetable.
“In the past few weeks we have already taken steps to maintain service levels across the network, including cancelling all non-safety critical staff training.
“Like many other businesses we are expecting prolonged periods of staff absence due to Covid to continue in the coming weeks and the objective of this temporary timetable is to provide a service that can be relied on, reducing the potential for ad hoc short-notice cancellations.
“This means reducing our timetable a little to shore up the large number of services we continue to operate. We have prioritised high-use school, college and other known key worker services and we very much hope that the changes will only be needed for a short period.
“We will be reviewing the need for temporary changes weekly and will update journey planners and our website gwr.com with details of any changes needed for the week ahead.
“As always our advice to customers is please check your journey before you leave home at journeycheck.com/greatwesternrailway.”
Services between London Paddington, Bristol Temple Meads and South Wales will run to an hourly frequency at weekends as a result of pre-planned engineering works. A slightly reduced service will operate from Monday to Friday.
There are also some reductions to long-distance services on other routes on the network.
Other affected routes include some of the Devon and Cornwall branch lines. The St Ives branch will revert to hourly services on weekdays and some other services in the West are also impacted. Planned upgrade work between Newton Abbot and Paignton means that no trains will run for the next two weekends – and a bus replacement service will be in operation.
The industry’s Book with Confidence scheme has been extended until the end of March so that passengers can change their travel plans up to the evening before departure without being charged a fee, or if they choose not to travel are able to receive a refund on their unused ticket.
Those taking the train are advised to check their journey before leaving home at journeycheck.com/greatwesternrailway. If a train is cancelled, customers will be able to travel on a service immediately before or after their booked train.