Today Claire Perry, children from Great Bedwyn School and other local stakeholders travelled on a special Inter City Express Train to mark the launch of the new bi-modal trains on the Bedwyn to London, Paddington direct service.
The brand new, environmentally-friendly trains which run on electric from Newbury to Paddington, are longer and provide many more seats and tables, as well as improved legroom and Wi-Fi. And, most importantly enable the continuation of direct services from Paddington given that there were real concerns that the electrification of the line to Newbury, may have resulted in Bedwyn, Hungerford and Kintbury stations being served by a diesel shuttle to Newbury only.
Claire Perry said:
“This is what real politics is all about – working with local people to champion local issues. I am so pleased to see the new trains on the Bedwyn service as we were all so concerned that the electrification programme may have resulted in the loss of the direct train services on which so many local people and businesses rely. Huge thanks to everyone, and especially the Bedwyn Trains Passenger Group who have worked so hard to demonstrate just how vital our Bedwyn to Paddington direct services are to the local economy”