Save the Melksham Train
Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Ivan - intro. - 2089/4951
Written by Ivan on Monday, 23rd April 2007

Hi,

I've been reading this site for some time but only just got round to registering.

I'm a long suffering Dilton Marsh - Swindon commuter!!

Re: Ivan - intro. - 2089/4955
Written by Lee on Monday, 23rd April 2007

Hi Ivan & welcome to the forum. We just happen to be dicussing the future of your service on our sister forum , First Great Western Coffee Shop (link below.)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=248.msg617#msg617

Please feel free to register & contribute there as well.

You may also be interested in the link below.
http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1327950.0.task_group_looks_at_wiltshire_rail_travel.php

Re: Ivan - intro. - 2089/4965
Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Monday, 23rd April 2007

Hi, Ivan, and welcome ... the silly thing about all of this is that so many of the ills could be fixed for so little ... we must go on trying to get a sensible service otherwise the current impractical one will be withdrawn under the pretense than no-one uses it.

Is Fleur de Rhe Philipe your local county councillor?  If she is, did you know that the County Council is the Transport Authority for the area, and she's the cabinet (responsible) member on the County Council for Transport. It might be more that helpful to lobby her - and to get your neighbours to do so too - to work WITH the DfT to provide a mutual funding package for the cross-Wilts train service up from Salisbury via Dilton Marsh and Melksham to Swindon.  If you've been reading the forum for a while, you'll know that route would link the five largest population centres in the county ;)

 
link to index of articles


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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