| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Double Standards? - 260/685 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Saturday, 17th June 2006 I've always been puzzled as to why there have seemed to be double standards in the last couple of years with regard to our Swindon to Westbury via Melksham line - traffic growth at a compound rate of 35% per annum. On one hand we're congratulated on the spectacular growth to 110,000 journeys a year and on the other hand we're told that it would have to grow much more - so much more that the train would always be uncomfortably overcrowded - for it to be economically viable. Re: Double Standards? - 260/690 Written by Lee on Tuesday, 20th June 2006 Here are a couple of links on Alistair Darling's March letter to The Times. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/F3641215?thread=2431833 http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/F3641215?thread=2431845 I wrote that response in March 2006. As noted elsewhere on this site , Ivybridge (through the determined efforts of their rail users group and others) has now secured more services than the draft FGW December 2006 timetable originally proposed. Details contained in the link below. http://www.irug.ik.com/ They deserve their success , and I hope that it can be repeated at Melksham. Re: Double Standards? - 260/692 Written by Lee on Tuesday, 20th June 2006 Some interesting quotes from Alison Forster, Managing Director of First Great Western in the "What Others Say" section of the link below. http://www.saveourtrains.org.uk/ 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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