Hungerford Town Council steps up campaign to fight Great Western Rail service cuts

THE mayor of Hungerford wants to mobilise the public to fight cuts to the town's direct London Paddington rail link.

Helen Simpson said she would be writing on the council's behalf to protest to the Department for Transport.

And she urged residents to write to Newbury MP Laura Farris with their concerns.

Town councillors have warned that the proposed rail service cuts combined with falling school rolls and a GP shortage at the town surgery could threaten the town's prosperity.

A Great Western Railway (GWR) spokesman confirmed the proposals to cut the direct rail service from 19 trains per day to just nine.

He said: "The pandemic has had a major impact on the rail industry and the travel patterns of customers.

"Our new timetable in May gives us the opportunity to support those changes in travel patterns and to reduce costs, which is particularly important while they are being funded by the taxpayer.

"These changes leave key direct services in place.

"To help we have also added some additional stops on our High Speed West of England services, including a new 0803 service from Bedwyn arriving into London at 0901.

"The changes allow us to use our trains in the most efficient and effective way for the vast majority of our customers, and we have worked closely with Network Rail to make connections as easy as possible, and we will keep working on this for future timetables."

GWR has said it has been forced to wield the axe because the Department for Transport has told the company to cut costs.

The axed Paddington direct Inter City Express (IET) off-peak services will be replaced by diesel shuttle services to Newbury.

Mrs Simpson said: "I will be writing to the Department for Transport and to Laura Farris, MP.

"This is going to have a huge impact locally.

"We need to ensure we have a reliable service, otherwise where will that leave the town?

"People buy homes here because of the direct link to London and it will have a knock-on effect."

She added: "The town council will be do what it can but we need public support – there's strength in numbers."

She urged concerned residents to write to Mrs Farris, who can be contacted via email at laura.farris.mp@parliament.uk