RAIL users have an improved service between Exmouth and Exeter - but may have to suffer travelling on rolling stock originally mothballed when Margaret Thatcher was in power.

RAIL users have an improved service between Exmouth and Exeter - but may have to suffer travelling on rolling stock originally mothballed when Margaret Thatcher was in power.

Members of the Avocet Line Rail Users Group (ALRUG) have been out and about on the Exmouth branch line to take a straw poll of what passengers think of the new timetable, which started recently.

Service changes include an extra early morning train in each direction, starting from Exeter St David's at 6am and returning from Exmouth to Exeter at 6.48am.

There is also an additional train early Saturday evenings, from St David's at 18.18pm, returning from Exmouth at 18.54pm.

"The additional Saturday train was asked for by rail users," says chairman Tony Day. "It should help shop workers get home after work - and Exmouth people going into Exeter for the evening."

There will also be extra seats in the rush hour, with some trains lengthened from two or three coaches to four.

"Over the three Devon branches, I understand that there will be 25 per cent more seats available in the evening peak and 10 per cent more in the mornings," he said.

However, a dozen Class 142 trains, known as "pacers" have been transferred to Exeter from Manchester to replace a smaller number of more comfortable, air-conditioned trains, which are required by new franchises in the Midlands and north.

"This has been forced on First Great Western by the Department for Transport," says Tony Day.

"Our Rail Users' Group has written to the DfT to complain, but now the pacers are here FGW must make the best of a bad deal.

"If it means a reliable service and more seats at peak times, perhaps passengers will be happy to put up with the pacers.