'Run trains from Paddington to Cheltenham later than 8.45pm' - Cheltenham MP▸ Martin Horwood
Martin Horwood at Cheltenham Spa stationMP Martin Horwood is calling for train chiefs to restore a service from London to Cheltenham after 9pm.
The 10.15pm First Great Western (
FGW▸ ) train from Paddington to Gloucester, via Swindon, used to allow commuters to transfer at Gloucester to catch the Arriva Trains Wales service on to Cheltenham at 2.15am.
However, Arriva has cancelled the service from Gloucester to Cheltenham. This means the last train from London to Cheltenham is now effectively at 8.45am.
As a result Martin Horwood, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, has demanded that FGW put on a later train from Paddington to Cheltenham, after 9pm.
He Tweeted FGW^s corporate account: ^Why is last train back to
CNM» [Cheltenham] from
PAD» [Paddington] now 20:45, 1.5hrs earlier than before? No wonder no fanfare for redoubled Swindon/Kemble line!^
He received the response: ^Hi Martin. It looks like @ArrivaTW withdrew their service to Cheltenham so there is no longer a connection, apologies.^
But that didn^t soothe Mr Horwood, who replied, copying in the Arriva Trains Wales account: ^But you serve Cheltenham from Swindon, Reading & London. This isn't good enough after huge investment. #franchise^
FGW responded: ^This was a last minute change by Arriva, and we planned the timetable around this. I'm afraid we aren't able to change it now.^
To which Mr Horwood wrote: ^So @ArrivaTW can make last minute changes but @FGW can't. Not sure my constituents will understand that. I'm using @nationalexpress tonight.^
Speaking to the Echo, Mr Horwood said: ^Now the Arriva train from Gloucester to Cheltenham is cancelled it means people like me, travelling back from London, either face the expense of staying overnight in London, or they have to get the coach. That^s what I did this week and it was very comfortable and much cheaper than the train. But there^s a more serious issue: if you factor in the time to get to Paddington and buy tickets, then having the last train at 8.45pm means people from Cheltenham cannot go to London for an evening event, or a show or something like that. And that might have a business impact. We^ve spent ^45 million of public money on doubling the Swindon to Kemble line, that^s just been completed and although I didn^t expect the service to improve overnight, I didn^t expect it to get worse straight away either.^
Train timetable websites list the 8.45pm departure from Paddington as getting to Cheltenham at 11.04pm, with a change at Swindon to another FGW train. The 10.15pm FGW train from Paddington used to arrive in Gloucester, after a change at Swindon, at 1.34 am, allowing passengers to catch an Arriva trains Wales service to Cheltenham 40 minutes later. With that service now cancelled, there is no service to Cheltenham until 6.10am.
A spokesman for FGW said: ^The doubling of the line from Swindon to Kemble doesn^t mean we are able to put on more services with the rolling stock that we have. That^s work done by Network Rail and it will allow us to maintain services when work is done to electrify the line between London and South Wales, and whoever has the franchise in 2017 might be able to improve services when the new inter-city express trains are introduced.^
A spokesman for Arriva Trains Wales said: ^The decision to cancel the Gloucester to Cheltenham section of this service was based on low customer demand and night-time engineering work being carried out by Network Rail between Gloucester and Cheltenham.^
