TRANSWILTS rail campaigners received a huge boost this week, after the government announced that First Great Western will continue to operate trains through Wiltshire until 2019.

The TransWilts service, which connects Westbury and Swindon and was launched in December 2013 with the support of Wiltshire Council, was estimated to make 45,000 journeys in the first 12 months, but was actually used more than 180,000 times by passengers.

Following the franchise extension announcement, First Great Western confirmed that the TransWilts service will continue to run beyond the end of the three-year trial in 2016, with single carriage trains expected to be doubled to two carriages from May 2017.

Additionally, FGW is expanding its funding for Community Rail Partnerships, so it can provide additional annual funding to support the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership throughout the franchise term, to support further improvements to stations and services.

Graham Ellis, of the TransWilts community rail partnership, said: “One of our main aims was to make sure that the service continues beyond 2016, so as far as TransWilts is concerned the franchise announcement is great news.

“We are delighted as the new franchise removes the need to readjust the service next year and it looks like we will move from single carriage trains to two carriages from 2017.

“It is hard to predict where the numbers will go, but I would say that you have not seen anything yet. We currently have trains that are full, with people standing, so if you make those trains bigger they may not be full straight away but there is potential to increase the numbers.

“We are pinching ourselves really and the news was a big sigh of relief. This is acknowledgement that this is the way forward and the future of the service is much more secure than it was.”

For the past year, there have been trains running every two hours on weekdays as part of the service, including early morning and evening services in both directions, as well as an additional four trains on Sundays.

The line, which will have trains equipped with free Wi-Fi, is also expected to benefit from FGW’s new Customer and Communities Improvement Fund.

Mr Ellis added: “Early indications show that the passenger numbers for January and February this year are up on what they were in January and February in 2014.

“There are still more people who could be using it and the hope is that in 2018 we can get additional trains and run the service on the hour, but we need people to continue to support it.”