| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Moving Goal Posts - 117/261 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Saturday, 14th January 2006 A comment to the local Wiltshire Transport Plan consultation: I strongly agree with the target to increase rail passenger numbers by 50% between 1999 and 2010 but I don't understand how Wiltshire County Council hope to achieve this if the TransWilts service is withdrawn under the new Greater Western Franchise Answer The target will be reviewed if rail services are reduced .... What's the point in setting yourself targets if you're going to change them in the light of changing circumstances such as our collective failure to do enough to convince "the powers that be" - so far - to retain the service? ::) ::) Re: Moving Goal Posts - 117/265 Written by Nick Field on Monday, 16th January 2006 Unbelievable - No one seems to want to encourage or promote the lines use! (Apart from those on the forum!) Re: Moving Goal Posts - 117/268 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Monday, 16th January 2006 Partly as a response of this comment, I've contacted appropriate elected members of Wiltshire County Council (primarily those along the route of the railway) and I've had a handful of responses so far - mostly very encouraging, though there were one or two disappointing elements; it seems that the threat to service was new news to one of them (which rather shows that all the publicity has only had a patchy effect), and one of them asked me in what capacity I was writing. However mostly very encouraging. Sometimes I do question whether there's a more general interest or I'm whistling in the wind against the silent majority. I've concluded that's not the case; we've had over 800 different visitors to this obscure prviate website from UK users (I've excluded overseas and automated contacts), and well over 100 of them have signed up to the petition; the proportion signing up is slipping, simply because it's now somewhat hidden in the mass of material as I try and keep it up to date. But there's only a tiny proportion of interested parties who DO get involved with web searches, who look at a URL when they see it in the paper ...and going along to the meetings of other groups or talking to users you find there's less that 50% of them actively on line. Goodness - a long answer to a few words of wondering, Nick! 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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