{"id":444343,"date":"2026-06-02T18:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T08:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railuk.com\/?p=194070"},"modified":"2026-06-02T18:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T08:57:15","slug":"new-mid-cornwall-metro-services-deliver-25-per-cent-rise-in-rail-journeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=444343","title":{"rendered":"New Mid Cornwall Metro services deliver 25 per cent rise in rail journeys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Between Sunday 17 May and Saturday 23 May, Great Western Railway (GWR) saw 726 more journeys than over the same period in 2025. This included 429 additional journeys on the Saturday alone.<\/p>\n

A special celebration event was held at Newquay today (Monday 1 June) to mark the successful first phase introduction of MCM and the best train service on the line since the 1960s.<\/p>\n

GWR\u2019s new May timetable has delivered 15 local trains between Par and Newquay Monday to Friday, 14 on Saturdays and eight on Sundays \u2013 a new record for the Atlantic Coast line.<\/p>\n

Direct summer services between London Paddington and Newquay have also been reinstated, taking the number of weekday services to 17.<\/p>\n

Funded by Cornwall Council and UK Government, Mid Cornwall Metro is a \u00a357m investment to upgrade the current rail links between four of Cornwall\u2019s largest towns: Newquay, St Austell, Truro, and Falmouth\/Penryn.<\/p>\n

Creating a sustainable transport corridor through central Cornwall, it will help residents better connect to employment, education and key services.    <\/p>\n

Funding has also brought pay-as-you-go ticketing to Cornwall, giving residents access to the best value on-the-day fares.<\/p>\n

Rail Minister Peter, Lord Hendy, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s brilliant to see so many people already making the most of the new Mid Cornwall Metro between Newquay and Par \u2013 and this is just the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis transformative project is all about boosting connections for both local people and tourists between Cornwall\u2019s north and south coasts. That is why the Government invested \u00a350 million into this project, which, in its first fortnight, is already unlocking access to jobs, education, health, leisure and tourism, and creating economic growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis comes as we accelerate towards Great British Railways \u2013 the new, publicly owned company that will build and run a railway the public can rely on and be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

St Austell & Newquay MP, Noah Law, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The opening of the Mid Cornwall Metro represents an important step forward for connectivity for Newquay in particular. Next year will herald the full timetabling, connecting two of Cornwall’s most vibrant seaside towns.<\/p>\n

“Still, there is a long journey ahead for connectivity, particularly in what must be done for residents in the clay country, and I hope we can build on this excellent project as we see more investment coming into Cornwall in the years ahead.”<\/p>\n

Cornwall Council cabinet member for transport, Cllr Dan Rogerson, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to give residents more sustainable choices for how they travel in Cornwall \u2013 and Mid Cornwall Metro is about doing just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur partnership with GWR, Network Rail and Government has seen significant growth in passenger numbers on the Cornish mainline and branch lines over recent years which shows that when we invest in reliable, accessible public transport, residents choose to use it. <\/p>\n

\u201cCornwall Council has played a leading role in this project and we will continue to work with all partners to improve transport options for the people of Cornwall.\u201d<\/p>\n

GWR Head of Strategic Service Development, Matt Barnes, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThese early passenger figures are hugely encouraging and show there is real demand for more frequent rail services in Cornwall. Mid Cornwall Metro is already making it easier for people to travel between communities for work, education and leisure, while helping support the local economy and more sustainable travel choices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always known these services would be transformational and these figures reflect the strong partnership working that has gone into delivering this major improvement for the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Network Rail Devon & Cornwall programme director, Chris Fuoco, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to see the immediate impact of our hard work and the efforts of everyone involved to bring Mid Cornwall Metro to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new service will benefit communities long into the future and demonstrates the value of investing in rail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Significant improvements to the infrastructure have been made by Network Rail to enable the service, including bringing back into passenger use platform 2 at Newquay station and a passing point which allows two trains to operate on the branch at the same time.<\/p>\n

Class 175 trains have also been introduced, bringing enhanced capacity and comfort for passengers, and helping to drive performance improvements and reliability.  The trains began their phased introduction from December last year.<\/p>\n

A new report produced by Development Economics, and commissioned by GWR, shows how Britain\u2019s regional rail network supports jobs, homes, businesses and opportunity across the country.<\/p>\n

The Growing Places report<\/a> estimates that by 2036, development across Britain\u2019s regional rail network could support over 1 million jobs and generate nearly \u00a379 billion in annual economic value.<\/p>\n

Phase two of Mid Cornwall Metro is scheduled to commence next year, extending services through to Truro, Penryn and Falmouth.<\/p>\n

Image credit: GWR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Between Sunday 17 May and Saturday 23 May, Great Western Railway (GWR) saw 726 more journeys than over the same period in 2025. This included 429 additional journeys on the Saturday alone. A special celebration event was held at Newquay today (Monday 1 June) to mark the successful first phase introduction of MCM and the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16013,190,2326,47,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-light-rail","category-metro","category-rail-news","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=444343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444344,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444343\/revisions\/444344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=444343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=444343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=444343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}