Urgent repairs at Exeter St Davids caused an Exeter St Davids train disruption on Friday, with trains passing through the station delayed, cancelled or revised. National Rail said the work was carried out on the track at Exeter St Davids on Friday morning.
Delays of up to 60 minutes were reported, and the disruption was expected to continue until 12:00 GMT. For passengers already on the move, that meant checking departures before travelling and expecting changes to the normal pattern through Devon and into Cornwall.
Exeter St Davids and Plymouth
Great Western Railway said services between Exeter St Davids and Plymouth via Newton Abbot may be cancelled, delayed or revised, and it listed the same risk for services into Cornwall and between Exeter St Davids and Paignton via Newton Abbot. It also listed services between Penzance and Exeter St Davids, Paignton and Exmouth, Exeter Central and Barnstaple, Exeter St Davids and Cardiff Central, and Exeter St Davids and London Waterloo among the routes affected.
Cross Country services between Plymouth and Derby, Leeds, York, Newcastle, Glasgow Central, Edinburgh and Aberdeen were also listed, along with services between Paignton and Manchester Piccadilly. The scale of the changes went beyond one local branch line and reached several long-distance links running through Exeter.
Network Rail repairs
Great Western Railway said it had reports of a track defect in the Exeter St Davids area and was working with Network Rail to return to running its normal timetable as soon as possible. That left passengers with a clear operational picture: services had restarted, but the railway still warned that cancellations, delays or revised runs could continue while the repair work settled the line.
Anyone due to travel through Exeter St Davids on Friday needed to check the latest service pattern before setting out, because the affected routes linked Devon with Cornwall and connected Exeter to London Waterloo, London Paddington and several other destinations named in the disruption notice.
