WEST Devon and East Cornwall residents are being urged to launch a letter writing campaign to stop the withdrawal of an early morning train service from Calstock to Plymouth. Under the new Great Western franchise there is a proposal to discontinue the 6.08am from Calstock which has been part of the timetable for more than 30 years. The proposal for the Tamar Valley Line has been fiercely opposed by the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership which is lobbying hard to keep the service. Partnership manager Richard Burningham said: ?The consultation period runs out on March 8 so we need as many people as possible to write to First Great Western with their objections especially those who use the service. ?We are contacting the local MPs Geoffrey Cox and Colin Breed and talking to First Great Western and the Department of Transport. It is disappointing that this train has been left out of the new timetable but it is far from the end of the story.? Mr Burningham said counts over the last four years found that between 10 and 15 people regularly used this train: ?At 6am these people will be completely up a gum tree if the train does not run and cutting it will not save much money anyway. ?We hope we can get it turned around and bring the train back to Gunnislake where it originally started from. Gunnislake is the busiest station on the line so it would make sense to run the service from there.? The new timetable, due to take effect in December, follows First Great Western?s successful bid for the Greater Western franchise. It is based on the Department of Transport?s specification. As part of the bid, First submitted a draft timetable covering almost 1,500 daily services which are currently run by First Great Western, First Great Western Link and Wessex Trains and will be included in the new franchise. Because the Tamar Valley Line is one of the Government?s seven pilot lines in its Community Rail Strategy, Mr Burningham said there was a better chance of saving the service. Calstock councillor Ian Kirk said he was completely opposed to the proposal: ?It will be detrimental to this area and to the long term viability of the Tamar Valley Line. ?I think we should be trying to keep these services and encouraging people to use them not just giving up on them because they are a bit underused. ?If there are trains running when people need them, at an economic rate, then they would use them more. The Government should be subsidising rail more than it is to get traffic off the roads.? Cornwall County Council has condemned proposed cuts to rail services in the county which will also effect trains on the Looe branch line, between Saltash and St Germans and further down in the county. A transport spokesman for the council said all the hard work with Wessex Trains to improve the rail services throughout the county ?had been destroyed by First which was proposing to run the bare minimum of services to meet the Government?s specification?. First Great Western managing director Alison Forster said the company wanted to be absolutely open and transparent about the draft plans: ?This is a real opportunity for the communities we serve to view the detail of the timetable at the earliest opportunity and to have their say.? The train company has committed to invest £200-million in station, train and customer service improvements as part of the new franchise. Anyone with a view should write to Timetable Consultation, First Great Western, Milford House, Swindon SN1 1HL or e-mail: [email protected]">[email protected]