Save the Melksham Train
Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Network Rail May Cut Investment If Recession Hits UK - 4764/8692
Written by Lee on Monday, 19th November 2007

Contingency plans are being drawn up that will allow Network Rail to scale back a near-

Re: Network Rail May Cut Investment If Recession Hits UK - 4764/8695
Written by Lee on Monday, 19th November 2007

It gets better (link below) :
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article2879666.ece

Rail industry leaders have accused the Government of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds and undermining the environmental benefits of rail travel by choosing diesel instead of electric trains.

Iain Coucher , chief executive of Network Rail, has written to the Department for Transport , describing its failure to electrify more lines as

Re: Network Rail May Cut Investment If Recession Hits UK - 4764/9428
Written by Lee on Monday, 14th January 2008

Here is a related Christian Wolmar article (08/01/2008, link below.)
http://www.christianwolmar.co.uk/articles/yorkshire/jan8,08.shtml

I was particularly struck by the following quote :

[quote]However, a downturn in the economy, or another series of confidence-busting terrorist attacks, could easily upset the train operators' calculations and cause a crisis in the industry.[/quote]

 
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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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