| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Now heavier loadings than the main line! - 183/437 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Thursday, 9th March 2006 I was speaking with a long distance business traveller yesterday who's been travelling around a bit in recent weeks in the new Great Western Area and thought I would share an observation or two with you. "There were more passengers in [each] coach on the "TransWilts" service than on most of the other trains I took" He went on to detail a journey that included Bath, Bristol, Taunton and Westbury legs. "The exception was the Commuter train toward Filton Abbey Wood, where dozens of people were standing as it arrived in Bath" There's growing information / suggestions that traffic figures on the Bristol - Westbury - Salisbury - Southampton - Portmouth are seriously distorted downwards and that there will be severe overcrowding on that line once First reduce the train length to a standard 2 coaches and the frequency to every hour - unless they can find some way to level out the peaks and troughs. Re: Now heavier loadings than the main line! - 183/445 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Friday, 10th March 2006 .... and I've just been down to Melksham Station to drop off passengers for the 17:02 which was looking distinctly crowded again ... I would estimate some 20 to 25 passengers in the one car "153" , as compared to around 8 to 10 per coach in most of the main line trains my contact was talking about the other day. 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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