Rail service 'will improve'

4:55pm Friday 2nd May 2008

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A Government minister has predicted there will be "significant improvements" in Oxfordshire's rail services within months.

Rail Minister Tom Harris said emergency plans to improve operator First Great Western's services were being closely monitored. He said: "I expect and hope that we will see significant improvements in First Great Western's performance in the next few months."

Mr Harris was responding to Oxford West and Abingdon MP Evan Harris, who asked when "long-suffering passengers" might see some progress.

Last month, Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned First Great Western it would lose its contract to provide services in Oxfordshire unless it improved.

In March, First Great Western was ordered by Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly to deliver a £29m improvement package to sort out its dire services between London, the Thames Valley, the west of England and south Wales.

Only 83 per cent of First Great Western services arrived on time in the last quarter for which statistics were available, compared with a national average of just under 91 per cent.

FGW acknowledged that its performance had "fallen short of expectations".