As lockdown is eased, we are expecting more customers to return to rail, especially for journeys to the South West. To support that we are adding a number of additional services for Devon and Cornwall from Saturday 25th July.
This will mean three additional services from London Paddington on Saturdays. Two running to Plymouth and the third running directly to Paignton. This will restore direct services to Torbay in time for the summer. We will also be adding four additional round trips (8 services) on our local trains between Exeter/Plymouth and Penzance.
During the week, we will extend four London services through to Penzance, restoring direct London services to Cornwall. We will also add a further six round trips from London Paddington (12 services), two running to Exeter, one to Plymouth and three running direct to Paignton. In addition to the London services, we will also be adding a further three round trips (6 services) between Exeter/Plymouth and Penzance. This should provide the extra capacity needed to support safer travel through the summer.
We are asking customers to wash their hands, travel off peak if they can, use mobile ticketing if possible and to wear a face covering unless exempt. We have increased our cleaning regimes including an overnight viricidal spray. We have extra staff at key stations to offer help and guidance, and processes in place to help customers maintain social distancing as much as possible. This includes a counted places system on our long distance services.
We have also confirmed plans to support the return to school in September. Many of the services that are heavily used by schools and colleges are already operational, where they are not, we intend to bring them back into service before 2 September, so that we are ready for students and pupils when they need us.
We are also planning a further timetable uplift on 14th September and will be in touch with more detail on this closer to the time.
