Great Western Coffee Shop

The Queen comes to Cornwall
The team at Penzance welcomed a very special customer to their station on Friday. West Cornwall Station Manager Sara Rogers (pictured) said:
^This was a very special day for all the First Great Western colleagues at Penzance Station and a nice surprise for our customers. Our team works hard to offer customers the best possible service, but it^s not every day that you can offer the opportunity to welcome the Queen!^

First Great Western and Cornwall Council celebrate anniversary of Falmouth half hourly service.

FirstGroup Chief Executive Tim O^Toole today (June 7) joined representatives from Cornwall Council at Truro Station to celebrate the second anniversary of Falmouth^s half hourly trains service.

Also in attendance were First Great Western Managing Director Mark Hopwood, Thelma Sorenson Chairman of the Cornwall Business Partnership, and Nigel Blackler and Tim Wood of Cornwall Council.

(http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/675/ltordavidcromejuliancro.jpg)

^{L to R David Crome - Julian Crowe - Nigel Blackler - Thelma Sorenson - Tim OToole - Carleen Kelemen - Mark Hopwood}

Close to one million journeys have been made by passengers on the Truro-Falmouth Maritime Line in the two years since the train service was doubled with the opening of a passing loop at Penryn station in May 2009.

This is almost two thirds more than the 579,081 journeys made in the previous two years.

Improvements were made possible thanks to a Cornwall Council led scheme costing ^7.8m, which included ^4.67m from ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) Convergence, ^2.50m from Cornwall Council and ^0.6m from Network Rail.

Tim O^Toole, Chief Executive of FirstGroup said: ^The increase in passengers numbers on the Maritime Line in the last two years demonstrates how targeted investment by partners close to the market can improve the rail network and produce significant benefits to customers and to the local economy."

Mark Hopwood, Managing Director of First Great Western said: ^Our local branch lines are really important to our business and have shown some of the most impressive growth in recent years. We work closely with the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership and we are extremely proud of all we^ve achieved together.^

Nigel Blackler, head of transportation at Cornwall Council said: ^ The Council is committed to working with our partners in the rail industry to continue to improve the rail network in Cornwall, in order to maintain the impressive level of growth seen in recent years which will allow rail to play an increasing role in meeting Cornwall^s travel needs.^