RAIL passengers may have to “up the ante” to secure faster and more frequent trains between Worcester and London, according to the chairman of the Cotswold Line Promotion Group.

John Ellis, a former senior manager with British Rail and Railtrack, told the group’s annual meeting that the new timetable planned for the route from September, once Network Rail’s £67 million track redoubling project is completed, fell “considerably short of our objective of a regular hourly service between Worcester and London, particularly west of Moreton-in-Marsh”.

He said: “At the western end there is plenty of evidence of people travelling to London via Birmingham rather than by our line’s uncompetitive journey times, frequencies and fares.

“We think there is a lot of scope to improve journey times and frequencies without significant additional costs and that the natural demand on the line is being suppressed by the present inadequacies.”

He told the meeting at Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, on Saturday, May 21: “I would welcome your views as to whether we should ‘up the ante’ on pressing for early improvements.”

Responding to Mr Ellis’ remarks, Mark Hopwood, the managing director of First Great Western, which runs the line’s passenger services, told the 90-strong audience: “We are delivering substantial reductions in journey times from September and the new timetable is a very positive step forward.”

He added that the Department for Transport had decided not to rewrite the minimum service commitment for the line so it was “not possible to get the timetable changes many would like to see”.

He said: “We have made as much progress as we can given the constraints we have to work with.”

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff said last month that FGW’s planned Cotswold Line timetable for September, with just one extra train a day each way between Worcestershire stations and Oxford, “just isn’t good enough”.

l The Cotswold Line will be closed to trains between Oxford and Kingham until Sunday, June 5, for completion of track redoubling work between Charlbury and Ascott-under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire.

During the closure, limited Worcester-London through services will run at peak times via Stroud and Swindon.

A shuttle train service will run between Worcester and Kingham connecting with buses to and from Oxford at Moreton-in-Marsh.

The Cotswold Line will reopen on Monday, June 6.

There will be a further closure in August between Worcester and Moreton-in-Marsh for commissioning of more double track.