| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
More Train, Less Strain Campaign Meeting tonight - 1096/3116 Written by Ruthg on Tuesday, 16th January 2007 I was at the More Train, Less Strain Campaign Meeting, with BBC Points West broadcasting live (?), Bristol Evening Post, plus others. The campaign is planning to have a fare strike day on the morning of Monday 22nd January and will be issuing passengers with Cattle Truck class tickets to hand in or show to FGW staff. Someone from Passenger Focus was there who says that there "needs to be a sea-change" i.e. people need to contact the DFT to get them to do something about the poor service rather than complaining to FGW. I asked the spokesmen for the campaign that if they got any concessions from FGW could they stress to them that they only want extra carriages as long as it's not at the expense of other services (which they totally agreed with). I specifically mentioned the Save the Train campaign and the fact that the Monday morning train from Swindon-Westbury was cancelled, whereas the 06.47 service from Frome had 4 carriages. Re: More Train, Less Strain Campaign Meeting tonight - 1096/3119 Written by bubblecat on Tuesday, 16th January 2007 Hey Ruth! I was there too! I remember you now - as far as I know it - the carriages on the 06.47am came from Cornwell - not your line......and not really the point - they came from somewhere else that then had to suffer. It too think that it's a Goverment issue - that they need to take on board that the franchises do not want to take on board (excuse the pun), the "less profitably" parts, whether that's Frome to Westbury or Westbury -Swindon....or infact, the Cornwell part of the branch that they "stole" the carriages from in the first place. I support Tony's view that this should be a Nationwide effort - that this campaign should be against the way franchises were set up in the first place. There needs to be a debate about the way in which they should be run in the future - Nationwide! Re: More Train, Less Strain Campaign Meeting tonight - 1096/3130 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Wednesday, 17th January 2007 [quote author=Ruthg link=topic=1096.msg3116#msg3116 date=1168983580] I was at the More Train, Less Strain Campaign Meeting, with BBC Points West broadcasting live (?), Bristol Evening Post, plus others. The campaign is planning to have a fare strike day on the morning of Monday 22nd January and will be issuing passengers with Cattle Truck class tickets to hand in or show to FGW staff. Someone from Passenger Focus was there who says that there "needs to be a sea-change" i.e. people need to contact the DFT to get them to do something about the poor service rather than complaining to FGW. I asked the spokesmen for the campaign that if they got any concessions from FGW could they stress to them that they only want extra carriages as long as it's not at the expense of other services (which they totally agreed with). I specifically mentioned the Save the Train campaign and the fact that the Monday morning train from Swindon-Westbury was cancelled, whereas the 06.47 service from Frome had 4 carriages. [/quote] Thanks for that report, Ruth .. and for your inputs on the "TransWilts". So sorry I couldn't make it; probably my two most important evening meetings in January on the SAME night and I was up with 'a major boardcasting corporation' in London. Sion reports elsewhere that we have lost the whole Westbury to Swindon service all week. But of course they're sending diverted expresses along it during the evening ... I wish the 20:35 out of Paddington last night (diverted via Swindon on its way to Westbury) had stopped at Melksham - it would have saved me the need to drive ... Re: More Train, Less Strain Campaign Meeting tonight - 1096/3134 Written by Lee on Wednesday, 17th January 2007 [quote author=bubblecat link=topic=1096.msg3119#msg3119 date=1168989297]Hey Ruth! I was there too! I remember you now - as far as I know it - the carriages on the 06.47am came from Cornwell - not your line......and not really the point - they came from somewhere else that then had to suffer. It too think that it's a Goverment issue - that they need to take on board that the franchises do not want to take on board (excuse the pun), the "less profitably" parts, whether that's Frome to Westbury or Westbury -Swindon....or infact, the Cornwell part of the branch that they "stole" the carriages from in the first place. I support Tony's view that this should be a Nationwide effort - that this campaign should be against the way franchises were set up in the first place. There needs to be a debate about the way in which they should be run in the future - Nationwide![/quote] That view is very much part of my own campaign : [quote author=Lee link=topic=989.msg2889#msg2889 date=1168447004] When CANBER was launched , I sent out a raft of e-mails , each of which contained the following quote : "It is our intention to start a debate on the future of the rail network." Our view was that the true state of the rail network , and what was happening to it , was being deliberately kept quiet. For that reason (and others) , I applaud the fact that virtually every transport group in the South West spoke out against the "bustitution" of the Looe & St Ives lines , thus giving out a signal that FGW could not ignore. First battle won , many more to follow , perhaps sooner than we think.[/quote] By the way , I have updated the "Links" section of the CANBER website (link below.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/G1517 Aidan (Eye On Manchester) , many thanks for including a link , but I should point out that I am a Save The Train Forum moderator and not a Save The Train Forum manager..... Thats Graham's job :) Re: More Train, Less Strain Campaign Meeting tonight - 1096/3143 Written by Lee on Wednesday, 17th January 2007 Here is a BBC report on the meeting (link below.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/6269875.stm "We want people to demonstrate peacefully - to take a fare strike ticket (a fake ticket printed by the group) on Monday (22/01/2007) which won't have any monetary value but will hopefully mean they wont have to buy a ticket," said Simon Carpenter of More Trains Less Strain. "It's our way of demonstrating and saying we don't value the existing service. " "The tickets will be issued in the morning at Bath Spa, Oldfield Park and Keynsham stations between 7.30 and 8.45," Re: More Train, Less Strain Campaign Meeting tonight - 1096/3211 Written by Lee on Thursday, 18th January 2007 More on this , courtesy of Save Severn Tunnel Junction (link below.) http://www.saveseverntunnel.co.uk/ Tony Ambrose, spokesman for the group, catches the train daily from Bath Spa to Bristol Temple Meads as he commutes to work. He said: "The cheek of it is that fares went up with the timetable change at the same time they reduced the frequency and length of the trains. We understand First Great Western has got rid of 20 carriages from the line in a bid to save link to index of articles |
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Save the Train was the campaign to bring an approriate train service back to and through Melksham. Most big contributors are still around writing at the Coffee shop forum where new members are very welcome. The train has been saved - sort of - we have stepped back up from an unusable service to a poorish one but it's doing very well. We did that through setting up the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership. That fulfilled its early objectives; it has been taken over by local and regional government types who are now doing medium and long term work. The team from this forun can also be found at the Melksham Rail User Group (which was the Melksham Rail Development Group at the time these articles were written and we had no users. We mustn't loose sight, though, that the train service remains poor and needs our community support in marketing and campaigning to keep it going in a positive direction ... and all the more so when we're expecting to find a different normallity once we get out of the Coronavirus Pandemic and head for zero carbon via the climate crisis. Yes, it's saved ... it's now a key community facility ... the need for enhancement and the strong and near-universal local support remain, and the rail industry and goverment remain slow to move and provide the enhancements even to level us up with other towns. Please support the Melksham Rail User Group - now very much in partnership rather than protest with the rail industry and local government, including GWR, TransWilts and unitary and town councils. And please use the trains and buses, and cycle and walk when you can. -- Graham Ellis, (webmaster), February 2021 | |||
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