| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
hello - 637/1921 Written by streety7 on Sunday, 12th November 2006 Hi Save the Train team, I have been visiting this website almost since you started the campaign, and, even though I have only been to Melksham on the train once or twice I still feel for you very strongly - I agree that the service you are being provided with from December 2006 is just of little or no use, 2 trains a day is supposed to be the centre for driving people off the roads in Melksham? I've just been thinking why don't they just dedicate two trains to do the route each way, giving Melksham an hourly service or if thats not possible 1 train dedicated to a 2-hourly service each way, the trip takes less than an hour one way. It can't cost [i]that much[i] to dedicate 1 or maybe 2 two-carriage class 158's to the route would it? This would counter-balance the sharp rise in fares recently, wouldn't it? Wasn't the greater western franchise one to look forward to for improvements not cuts? I saw the new timetable published the other day and the fact that FGW have not edited the 0702 arrival to Westbury of which has a turnaround time of 0 minutes is just going to make things worse, especially if it runs late from the North from Gloucester, surely at least 5 minutes later from Westbury wouldn't make a difference as the train will still have about half an hourly probably to turn around when it goes back north up to Cheltenham? At least then reliability will be improved. I really do hope things look up in the near future, as I think you have the strongest of points because with 2 trains a day Melksham is nearly being wiped off the rail map, whereas others are complaining that an hourly service isn't enough, ok I see their point but still they should try living in Melksham where a decent non-SLC2 compliant service isn't even being offered! I'm also liking the way that FGW have put London and Reading connections into the timetable, because I heard from here that there weren't any practical connections to London from December and the fact that there's no southbound connections to e.g. Frome or Salisbury or Southampton... Re: hello - 637/1923 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Monday, 13th November 2006 Welcome, and many thanks for your words of support. 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 | |||
|
|||
Further Information:
Home
Current Summary
Daily update
User forum
Consultation
Service now
Service future
Future Analysis
Recent Statistics
Recent letters
Letter to DfT
Save the train
Presentation
Support us
Other Maps
Station facilities
Station approach
Pictures
Trains diverted
History
About Melksham
Site Map
About this site