MALVERN rail users will lose a through train to and from London Paddington in Great Western timetable changes from the New Year.

Important connections from Hereford, Ledbury, Colwall and the Malverns into two peak-hour trains from Worcester to London would also have been lost but for late intervention by the Cotswold Line Promotion Group and London Midland timetable planners.

The 11.21am London to Great Malvern and 2.25pm Great Malvern to London will no longer serve the two malvern stations, and will start from Worcester.

The cuts come as Great Western tries to tackle a mounting tide of train delays, cancellations and trains terminating short of destination in the Worcester and Malvern area over the last few months due to train faults, signalling issues and lack of crews.

Peak hour connections from the Hereford/Malvern line to the 8.26am Worcester-Paddington and 5.28pm Worcester-Paddington services would have been lost, but following representations by the promotion group, they have been restored by minor retimings of the Hereford line services.

The promotion group held a top-level meeting with Great Western managers in Worcester back in June regarding serious and continuing reliability issues affecting both Cotswold Line and Great Malvern-Bristol services in the Worcester area.

And it has now taken up the issues direct with Great Western's managing director Mark Hopwood.

Julian Palfrey of the group said: "Recent reliability issues included one Friday with the complete cancellation of two London trains in both directions between Great Malvern/Worcester and Paddington due to lack of available train crew, and one week when on four out of five days the 9.58am Great Malvern to London Paddington failed to serve the two Malvern stations."

The Vale Public Transport Group has already highlighted Cotswold Line reliability problems with MPs Harriett Baldwin and Nigel Huddleston, who have taken the issues up with Rail Minister Paul Maynard MP.