| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Swindon to Southampton on a Sunday - 7919/12762 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Monday, 25th August 2008 [quote]I have come across your website and I was wondering if you could help me. I need to get from Swindon to Southampton on Sunday 7th September and was wondering on times, prices ...[/quote] This sort of thing - from my mailbox - is not untypical and it shows (when you investigate) just how truely dreadful the pubolic transport links are between these two major urban connurbations - especially on a Sunday. I ended up replying with a "via Reading" routing and a Saver Single ticket of 29 pounds .. but in the uneasy knowledge that 7th September is the very day that the fares change and we're looking at a whole raft of new names. True to form, the "lower fares may be availbale via a slower route" button offered a dozen fares from 6.50 up, but clicking on each of them I got a further message to tell me it wasn't available .... National Express offered a higher fare, can you believe, routed via Heathrow. And the fare on the direct 06:15 train the following morning? A startling 45 pounds for the journey of about 60 miles - "railway robbery!". Buying a Swindon to Warminster (11.40) ticket and a Warminster to Southampton ticket (16.10) would save 17.50 .... 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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