A CORNISH MP and tourism bosses this week reacted angrily to news that all trains into Cornwall will be terminating at Plymouth during main days of this year's Easter holidays.
In South East Cornwall there are worries that, although buses are to be laid on from Plymouth, people will be deterred from booking a holiday at a time which traditionally kicks off the tourist season.
Railtrack announced no trains will run into Cornwall from 6.20am on Saturday March 30 until l.50pm on Easter Monday, due to a £1 million project to carry out structural and maintenance work on the Royal Albert bridge across the Tamar. During the scheme engineers will have to lay longitudinal timbers to support the track and protect the bridge.
A further closure would follow two weeks later, from 9.30pm on April 13 until 5.30am on April 15.
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The chairman of the South East Cornwall Tourism Association (SECTA), Peter Bishop, said he presumed Railtrack had chosen this time because traditionally fewer trains ran at Bank Holidays - but he pointed out the UK was perhaps the only country in the world where there were less public services at holiday time.
He said he understood the work had to be carried out, but felt that the company could have chosen a better time than a week when the area covered by SECTA is usually very busy.
Mr Taylor said: 'It is the worst possible timing - why could it not be scheduled for a time of year when there are less people travelling on the railways?
'Cornwall is reliant on tourism to keep its economy alive, and this decision will deter people from coming.
'People will simply stop visiting if this failure to provide acceptable train services continues. It just shows what a shambles the railways in the region are in.'
The chairman of the Cornwall Association of Tourist Attractions, Nick Howell, has called on the Prime Minister to halt the closure of the bridge. Mr Howell said he felt the timing of the maintenance work could not have been worse, and stressed that around 20,000 visitors normally enter Cornwall by rail during Easter, contributing £1.8 million to Cornwall's economy.
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