Great Western Coffee Shop

New station planned in rail improvements

A new station at Torquay is being planned to meet the growing demand for rail travel in the area.

Talks are under way between the train operators and local authorities to improve services between Torbay and Exeter and beyond.

It comes as the Government has gone out to public consultation on the new First Great Western franchise.

Julian Crowe, regional manager of First Great Western, told business leaders that passenger growth is expected to continue and infrastructure investment would be needed to be able to cope.

He said there was considerable investment already taking place in the rail system, including the ^600million improvements to double the capacity of Reading station which will improve speeds to Paddington.

Mr Crowe said: "It's essential the specification of the new franchise does take into account the growing demand. The present franchise was let on the basis of level growth."

The new franchise also had to reflect the seasonal demand. FGW had increased capacity on the early morning trains used by schoolchildren by using more modern units and provided extra direct trains from London to Paignton. Journey times had also come down, he said.

"Plymouth would like to get them down even further but the challenge there is the infrastructure and other things," said Mr Crowe. "Brunel built a wonderfully scenic piece of railway around the seawall. But the reality is there wasn't much of a business case for building anything faster then, and there still isn't really. The more controversial aspect of speeding up services is simply taking out station stops."

He said Plymouth businesses were asking whether trains needed to stop at Totnes. "I think that is pretty unlikely but they are making their bid," he said.

The company has a joint transport plan with Devon County Council and Torbay Council called Devon Metro, which aims to offer half-hourly services to Exeter and new stations including one at Edginswell.

"The first stage would be a half-hourly service between Paignton and Newton Abbot. If we could get the rolling stock we could extend that to Exeter and Exmouth," said Mr Crowe.