GREAT Western Railway expects to be able to operate 99 per cent of its planned timetable from Monday after the re-introduction of the majority of its long-distance fleet.

Hitachi’s fleet of 800 Series trains was removed from service across the UK as a precaution last weekend when cracks were found on some trains. After further rigorous safety checks involving ORR’s HM Railway Inspectorate, GWR is now beginning to reintroduce trains with a more regular service for passengers.

The timetable includes London Paddington and Plymouth/Penzance: Hourly to Plymouth with services extended to Penzance every two hours.

Local stopping services will continue to operate as planned, and additional long-distance train services will be provided at weekends to accommodate summer increases in visitors to Devon and Cornwall.

GWR will operate Intercity Express Trains alongside additional trains brought in from other areas of the UK rail network to provide its long-distance services. With a reduction in available Class 800 trains, some very early morning and late evening services will not operate.

The service recovery plan includes thorough inspections by specialist teams before trains leave the depot and trains will only re-enter service if they meet agreed safety criteria. Working with Hitachi Rail, the rail regulator will continue to carry out rigorous oversight to ensure robust processes are being followed.

Trains on some routes may be less frequent than usual and train availability could vary, for a number of reasons, so passengers should continue to check before they travel next week.

What about travel this weekend? Prior to Monday some disruption is expected to continue as GWR continues to take delivery of more trains and ramps-up service levels again. Trains on some routes will be less frequent than usual, and your journey might take longer than it normally would.

Yoday, Saturday, a limited number of services will be running. Please only travel if your journey is essential. Online journey planners have been updated. Check your journey before you travel.

?If you no longer want to travel, you can claim a refund from where you bought your ticket, free from admin fees.

Tickets for travel between Saturday 08 May and Sunday 16 May, can instead be used on any alternative day up to and including Sunday, May 16.

They ask if you do travel on another day, to travel as close to the time of your original ticket as possible. New reservations should be made where possible. 

A spokesperson said: ‘Until Monday, we will adapt many of our direct high-speed routes into a series of separate services.

‘Expect your journey to take longer.?This may lead to train services being busier than normal and is likely to make social distancing difficult.’

Mark Hopwood, GWR managing director, said: ‘Our customers have shown great patience over the past week, and I am grateful for their understanding as we have worked with Hitachi to allow trains to return safely. This news will allow us to run some additional services over the weekend and reintroduce more consistent robust timetables for customers from Monday.

‘Our plans from next week are designed to provide the best possible levels of service for customers with the trains we have available.

‘However, while we work with Hitachi to make more trains available, some trains will run with fewer carriages, and we are having to ask some customers heading to stations such as Bedwyn and Oxford to change trains part way through their journey when they would normally have a direct service.

‘The industry has come together to help support those travelling – with other operators allowing each other’s tickets to be used on their networks; adding in extra shuttle services to help move people; and in sharing rolling stock to provide it to those who need it most.’