TRANSPORT campaigners say that rail services stopping at Pershore could be under threat from plans to speed up services on the Cotswold Line.

And a public meeting has been called in the town to call for action and restore services to the town that have already been cut.

The campaigners say that despite increases in the number of people using the station, Pershore's status as the second largest town on the line between Worcester and Oxford is not recognised in existing service provision, and previous cutbacks in services have still not been restored.

Now members of Pershore's Public Transport Group and the 1,700-strong Cotswold Line Promotion Group have called a public meeting in Pershore at the Town Hall on Thursday, March 16, at 7pm.

Representatives from train company Great Western Railway and Worcestershire County Council will be at the meeting, chaired by Pershore's mayor Bob Gillmor.

The two groups claim that despite previous assurances, Pershore will fail to benefit from the planned upgrade to hourly fast services from December 2018, and Great Western Railway has indicated that Pershore may have to wait for redoubling of the track, for which there is currently no timescale or funding, before any improvements can be expected.

Car parking at the station has also been criticised - despite years of campaigning, the 20-space car park has never been enlarged.

"Forty years of constant campaigning to ensure that rail services and facilities such as vital car parking meet the needs of the growing town of Pershore are now at risk," said PPTG chairman and CLPG publicity officer, Julian Palfrey.

"Just five years ago, all trains served the town's station but cuts imposed in May 2015 have still not been restored and the number of trains not serving Pershore's 8,000 population increases to seven in the latest May timetable - despite existing major and planned housing growth within a third of a mile of the station.

" The powerful case for the hourly fast trains to call at Pershore must not be compromised either by the new Worcester Parkway station, which will cost an extra three to four minutes on train schedules, or by the clamour for a two-hour Worcester-London journey time."