First Great Western has confirmed a 25 per cent discount on walk-up fares for services affected by the closure of the railway at Dawlish.

Yesterday, Network Rail confirmed that the damage to the track will take at least six weeks to fix, and trains will not be able to run between Exeter and Plymouth during that time.

Instead, First Great Western has ordered hundreds of buses to provide alternative transport between the two cities while the track is repaired.

Volunteers from other areas of the business, who have been supporting our efforts to keep customers moving in the area are expected to be joined by colleagues from other FirstGroup rail companies throughout the UK over the weekend.

A 25 per cent discount will apply to all walk-up fares - including Any time, Off-Peak, Super Off-Peak and weekly season tickets - for journeys that pass through the affected area, and will remain in place until the line reopens.

The same discount will apply to monthly and annual season tickets on a pro-rata basis. Holders of these season tickets will be contacted directly with details of how this rebate will be applied.

Advance Purchase fares will also be reintroduced on the route for combined bus and rail fares from Wednesday next week. The company has been unable to offer Advance Purchase tickets – which are tied to specific trains - since Wednesday, as we were unable to guarantee which trains would be running.

First Great Western MD, Mark Hopwood said: “We recognise that this work will mean customers are inconvenienced, and journey times are likely to take longer than normal as we look at alternative ways of getting customers to where they need to go. We want our prices to reflect that.

“No-one should lose out because of this. FGW's promise is that anyone who has been unable to purchase an Advance Purchase ticket because they were removed from the system and paid more than they would have done normally, will be reimbursed the difference."