PEOPLE in west Wiltshire wanting to get away for a summer's day on the south coast will benefit from an improved train service that starts today.

First Great Western has boosted its Saturday service from Bristol to Weymouth by adding an extra train to the route.

The train is hired from EWS trains and will complement the First Great Western services at weekends from Bristol, Bath and Westbury to the coast.

From today, the new service will leave Bristol Temple Meads at 8.34am on every Saturday in July and August, and arrive at Weymouth at 11.03am.

It will call at local stations ranging from Keynsham, Oldfield Park, Bruton, and Maiden Newton - as well as the major towns along the route such as Trowbridge, Bradford on Avon, Yeovil Pen Mill and Dorchester West.

The train will return from Weymouth at 5.47pm, arriving back in Bristol Temple Meads at 8.04pm.

This means that day trippers can choose from homeward bound services on offer from Weymouth to Bristol - with two leaving at 5.21pm and at 5.47pm.

Julian Crow, First Great Western's regional manager West of England, said: "This locomotive hauled train can accommodate several hundred people and complements the enhanced local train services that link Avon, Somerset and West Wiltshire with the Dorset coast on summer weekends.

"We have hired this extra train to add what we hope will be a popular addition for the summer. All we and our customers need now is better weather."

The service will run until 25 August 2007.