| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Trains to Bath? - 7738/12458 Written by Nick on Tuesday, 27th May 2008 Perhaps a service to Bath could compete with the X72 bus services? Buses are an outdated form of transport, and it would be easier to walk to the station for some people rather than into the town centre....I vaguely remeber hearing something about a problem with "doubling back"...but then, the trains to Cardiff "double back" when they reach Bristol Temple Meads. Re: Trains to Bath? - 7738/12460 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Tuesday, 27th May 2008 [quote author=Nick link=topic=7738.msg12458#msg12458 date=1211885206] Perhaps a service to Bath could compete with the X72 bus services? Buses are an outdated form of transport, and it would be easier to walk to the station for some people rather than into the town centre....I vaguely remeber hearing something about a problem with "doubling back"...but then, the trains to Cardiff "double back" when they reach Bristol Temple Meads. [/quote] Various options have been / could be looked at for that, but it's probably not the first stage. Trains can be reversed at Chippenham (for sure) and Trowbridge (I think) but in both cases via the running line rather than a bay or extra platform, which would mean that the operator whould want to be very sure of robustness in order to avoid delays and potential penalties. Looking forward, Network Rail have it in their plans to put a track back against the spare platform faces at both Chippenham and Westbury, so that coule eliminate the robustness issue at Chippenham and also help with Westbury reversals - platforms appear to be something that they're NOT short of at Bristol Temple Meads from what I can see. Further forward, I hear "Bradford North Curve" being muttered! But ... are First [Great Western] going to want to compete with First [Bus] - somehow I doubt it. Re: Trains to Bath? - 7738/12465 Written by Nick on Tuesday, 27th May 2008 [quote]But ... are First [Great Western] going to want to compete with First [Bus] - somehow I doubt it.[/quote] Oh crap, I forgot that. :-[ I suppose they could compete with Faresaver. Re: Trains to Bath? - 7738/13004 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Monday, 6th July 2009 The new bus staton at Bath has a map showing First's bus and train services from there - interestingly with the Bradford North Curve that this thead talks about shown on the map:  I don't know of any short term plans to re-instate the curve and suspect that this is a drafting error ... if anyone knows different, please let me know! 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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