| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Concern Over - 3880/7431 Written by Lee on Wednesday, 5th September 2007 A Re: Concern Over - 3880/7433 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Wednesday, 5th September 2007 "Across West and North Wiltshire", Lee ????????? I haven't seen any of these but stop signs at all in Melksham not even at the busiest Town centre sites - have I missed something, or has Melksham been excluded from the system? Wasn't "2 million pounds" the amount of money that would have bought a regular, clock face train service on the TransWilts line for the period of the current franchise - that's up to 2015 - linking Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge and Westbury with good onward links to Warminster and Salisbury. Personally, I would have gone for the train (35 minutes, Trowbridge to Swindon) rather than an INFORMATION service about the buses that take 95 minutes. Oh - and FGW already have an infoamtion system. Not perfect all the time, but do they provide it. Re: Concern Over - 3880/8605 Written by courgettelawn on Tuesday, 13th November 2007 Let me vouch for the disappointment of the 'Real Time' information at Wiltshire bus stops. At Trowbridge it was like playing bingo, what number would it come up with next? I don't recall them at Melksham when we arrived but then again I wasn't looking. Yes, of course a decent TransWilts train service thank you very much. Re: Concern Over - 3880/8606 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Wednesday, 14th November 2007 [quote author=courgettelawn link=topic=3880.msg8605#msg8605 date=1194995899] Let me vouch for the disappointment of the 'Real Time' information at Wiltshire bus stops. At Trowbridge it was like playing bingo, what number would it come up with next? I don't recall them at Melksham when we arrived but then again I wasn't looking. [/quote] No, you won't find any of them in Melksham. It would be really useful to have a display of the upcoming buses in the Market Place at least, but even the main bus stops in Melksham seem to be far lower down the pecking order than very much more obscure stops elsewhere. There are times that I feel that the county overlooks Melksham, other times that I wonder if it is a deliberate snub, and other times I wonder if the people of Melksham are just too accepting of being downtrodden, with the decision makers over a wider area being more concerned to oil squeaky wheels than to come up with a fair and justified distribution of facilities and resources. Re: Concern Over - 3880/8630 Written by courgettelawn on Wednesday, 14th November 2007 I would have to agree with your sentiment, Graham. The impression I had of Melksham before I visited was one akin to say, Trowbridge or Chippenham. But it was nothing like them. Melksham is a civilised, vibrant and welcoming town. I cannot understand why it does not have a higher profile on the county's agenda. I can only think it's a political throw-back. At the moment there are many plans afoot to revamp Salisbury which is long overdue. We were in danger of become yet another depressed Wiltshire urban centre (outside the Close at least) so much hope is pinned on these new plans. My only fear is that when we are under the brush of WC things will slow down for all of us. No, mustn't be to pessimistic, we'll make them work! 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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