Was heading to Devon today via the Cross Country 9:40am Penzance service - on arriving at St Erth I checked Rail Planner Live only to find the service cancelled and starting from Plymouth - not an unknown occurrence.
I was therefore surprised when the service arrived on time and a tad annoyed when it ran through at line speed.
Station Manager at St Erth could only suggest that it ran fast to Plymouth as it had no TM‡ but it certainly had one on the way down to Penzance.
I've known XC▸ to cancel services from Penzance before but then the service never entered Cornwall.
This is the message from XC control that got sent at 06:09 this morning.
NEW 1 XC:Alteration: 09:40 from Penzance. 03/11/11 06:09
Alteration to the 09:40 Penzance to Manchester Piccadilly due 16:59 run on 03/11/11.
This train will be started from Plymouth at 11:50.
It will no longer call at: Penzance, St Erth, Hayle, Camborne, Redruth, Truro, St Austell, Par, Lostwithiel, Bodmin Parkway and Liskeard.
This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.