| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
More Saturday travelling woes - 4638/8461 Written by courgettelawn on Monday, 5th November 2007 What on earth was going on with FGW on Saturday 3 November? Arriving in plenty of time for the 14.47 from Salisbury to Southampton we found that the 14.08 was sitting on the platform (it was 14.28), the 14.30 was cancelled and the 14.47 was cancelled with noise that previous trains had also suffered a similar fate. We had to get to Southampton for 15.30 so we had no choice but to leap on the delayed train which we were encouraged to do. It was, needless to say, packed to the hilt. There was an apology for the 'inconvenience' but no reason given. The train was so packed it was impossible to get to the guard to buy the ticket we had arrived in plenty of time at Salisbury to purchase. On arriving after further delay at Soton, we explained the situation and were faced with an accusatory jobsworth who insisted on knowing why we had not bought a ticket. I explained the situation, that it was now or never and we needed to travel and so he begrudginly sold us a ticket but refused to sell us a cheap day return and stung us for the standard day return ( Re: More Saturday travelling woes - 4638/8463 Written by WyvusArconius on Monday, 5th November 2007 from what i saw/experienced on saturday not a single Cardiff - Portsmouth train ran on time on Saturday. Im used to loking at the boards and seeing a myriad of FGW apologies but Saturday was very bad. God alone knows what is going on in that control room of theirs. Re: More Saturday travelling woes - 4638/8466 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Monday, 5th November 2007 [quote author=courgettelawn link=topic=4638.msg8461#msg8461 date=1194252672] I explained the situation, that it was now or never and we needed to travel and so he begrudginly sold us a ticket but refused to sell us a cheap day return and stung us for the standard day return ( Re: More Saturday travelling woes - 4638/8484 Written by courgettelawn on Tuesday, 6th November 2007 Good grief! I am awaiting more calmness before I word the letter. I want to convey disappointment rather than incredulity that they could operate in such a way in no obvious extenuating circumstances... 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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