Save the Melksham Train
Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Westbury bypass (A350) - permission refused - 8027/13005
Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Monday, 6th July 2009

At the end of last week, the government refused permission for the Westbury bypass on the A350 - the road which parallels the TransWilts rail line.  One of the reasons given for the refusal was the non-sustainabily of the transport in the proposal.

As it was unlikely that any public transport would have used the new road (rather that buses would still have been routed through the town of Westbury), I was somewhate muted on comments that I made, though I was concerned for extra traffic passing Melksham as I didn't think that the modelling started with the right assumptions, and I was concerned for the cost when compared to the much lower cost (admitteldly for lower returns) of improving the rail service.

I have posted links to the full report, and some more on what the decision means, on my blog:

http://www.wellho.net/mouth/2268_Westbury-Bypass-Refused-looking-forward.html

 
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


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