GREAT Western Railway (GWR), which operates mainline and branchline services across Cornwall and the South West, is introducing a temporary reduced timetable in response to higher than usual levels of staff being absent or self-isolating due to COVID.  

The temporary timetable reduction comes into effect from this Saturday (January 8), ensuring that the rail company can provide the majority of its usual, planned trains. 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.” 

Affected routes include some of the Cornwall and Devon branch lines, with the St Ives branch reverting to hourly services on weekdays and some other services in the West also being impacted. Planned upgrade work between Newton Abbot and Paignton means that no trains will run on the line to Torre, Torquay and Paignton for the next two weekends – and a bus replacement service will be in operation. 

There are also some reductions to long-distance services on other routes on the network. 

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.  

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. 

In line with the latest Government advice, GWR is encouraging customers to travel safely. People are reminded to: 

• Wear a face covering

• Wash your hands more regularly

• Buy tickets online, on a smart card or by using the GWR app

GWR’s enhanced on-train cleaning regime includes:   

• A 24% increase in cleaning hours every week since March 2020

• Sanitising (fogging) of 1,120 vehicles every 4 weeks

• Carrying out 2,150 on board surface tests (ATP) every four weeks, to ensure the effectiveness of the cleaning

• 272 train cleaning processes reviewed, and many adapted

• Hand sanitising facilities at key stations across its network.

Meanwhile, CrossCountry Trains, which operates services from Cornwall and Plymouth to Bristol, the Midlands, the North East of England and Scotland, says it is also “experiencing increasing levels of absence amongst train crew due to COVID-19 isolation periods, which is resulting in short notice alterations and cancellations of our train services.

“Services may start later or finish earlier than originally planned, and there may be cancellations throughout the day. You may find that the train you had booked to travel on is no longer running. Some of our services may also be formed of fewer carriages than usual and will therefore be busier.”

The rail company adds on its website: “We recommend you check your journey before you travel by using National Rail Enquiries at https://www.nationalrail.co.uk

“If your train is showing and is not marked as cancelled then it is expected to run as normal.

“Service alterations for the following week appear on National Rail Enquiries every Friday.

“You can use your original ticket for the removed service on a CrossCountry service before or after the cancelled train at no additional charge - you will not need to change your ticket. Your seat reservation will not transfer across – please sit in our unreserved coaches which are in Coach B, F, H and L, where available. You can check the formation of your train on the day via Realtime Trains at https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk

For further information relating to CrossCountry Trains see https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/coronavirus-timetable-updates, where altered timetables for the period up until Friday (January 7) can, at the time of writing, be accessed.