THE first week of new Mid Cornwall Metro services saw passenger journeys between Newquay and Par increase by nearly 25 per cent on the previous year, with the first Saturday seeing a 50 per cent jump in numbers.

Great Western Railway saw 726 more journeys between Sunday, May 17, and Saturday, May 23, than over the same period in 2025. This included 429 additional journeys on the Saturday alone.

A special celebration event was held at Newquay on Monday, June 1 to mark the successful first phase introduction of Mid Cornwall Metro and the best train service on the line since the 1960s.

Great Western Railway’s new May timetable has delivered 15 local trains between Par and Newquay Monday to Friday, 14 on Saturdays and eight on Sundays, a new record for the Atlantic Coast line.

Direct summer services between London Paddington and Newquay have also been reinstated, taking the number of weekday services to 17.

Funded by Cornwall Council and UK government, Mid Cornwall Metro is a £57million investment to upgrade the rail links between four of Cornwall’s largest towns: Newquay, St Austell, Truro, Penryn and Falmouth to help residents better connect to employment, education and key services.

Funding has also brought pay-as-you-go ticketing to Cornwall, giving residents access to the best value on-the-day fares.

Rail Minister Peter, Lord Hendy, said: “It’s brilliant to see so many people already making the most of the new Mid Cornwall Metro between Newquay and Par – and this is just the beginning.

“This transformative project is all about boosting connections for both local people and tourists between Cornwall’s north and south coasts. That is why the Government invested £50 million into this project, which, in its first fortnight, is already unlocking access to jobs, education, health, leisure and tourism, and creating economic growth.

“This comes as we accelerate towards Great British Railways, the new, publicly owned company that will build and run a railway the public can rely on and be proud of.”

Matt Barnes, Great Western Railways head of strategic service development, said: “These early passenger figures are hugely encouraging and show there is real demand for more frequent rail services in Cornwall. Mid Cornwall Metro is already making it easier for people to travel between communities for work, education and leisure,

“We’ve always known these services would be transformational and these figures reflect the strong partnership working that has gone into delivering this major improvement for the region.”

Significant improvements to the infrastructure have been made by Network Rail to enable the service, including bringing back into passenger use platform two at Newquay station and a passing point which allows two trains to operate on the branch at the same time.

Class 175 trains have also been introduced, bringing enhanced capacity and comfort for passengers, and helping to drive performance improvements and reliability. The trains began their phased introduction from December last year.

Phase two of Mid Cornwall Metro is scheduled to commence next year, extending services through to Truro, Penryn and Falmouth.