The Oxford to Bristol train service run by First Great Western was due to be shunted into history on Saturday, May 17, as part of a national Rail shake-up.

There used to be 12 trains in each direction on Monday to Saturday and five each way on Sundays, but the link is being shelved.

The Stategic Rail Authority required about 100 trains to be cut nationally to get the network running better and asked train companies for recommendations.

First Great Western, which ran the Oxford to Bristol service using Thames Trains rolling stock and drivers, earmarked this service because it was under-used and the SRA decided to scrap it.

FGW spokesman Elaine Wilde said some of the company's Paddington to Bristol trains would now make extra stops at Didcot Parkway to help cushion the blow.

She said: "We've put additional stops on some of our other services instead.

"It wasn't a particularly well-used service."

Commuters on Friday, May 16, were disappointed but resigned to the cut.

Local government consultant Angus Doulton, 58, who used the service for business and to visit his mother in Bristol said: "I had read about it but it hadn't clicked that it would affect me. "I've never been on it when it's been heavily-used. On the other hand it was an excellent service.

"They've put one more car on the road, that's certain."

Art curator Susie Medley, of Donnington, Oxford, who regularly commutes to Bristol, was travelling to a conference in Cardiff.

She said: "It was a useful service and it will be ex- tremely inconvenient for it to be withdrawn.

"The alternative will be to change trains, which will be a nuisance."

Darren Hunter, 28, of Boundary Brook Road, Oxford, relied on it for his daily commute to Swindon.

He said: "It will halve the number of trains I can catch coming home in the evening.

"It wasn't a reliable service, but I'm sorry it's being withdrawn."

He added that the timetable was often disrupted and most of his travel in January was funded by compensation payments for late or cancelled trains.