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October 25, 2005
The storm's eye?
These are the weeks during which the Department for Transport will be going through the three bids for the Greater Western Franchise, and deciding who's going to be awarded the service for the next seven years.
To some extent, we're at the "eye of the storm".
I've corresponded with all three bid teams and had replies from the top ponchos (at least, they're signed by the top ponchos!) and done my best to contribute a strong and argued case for Melksham without sending so much correspondence that it get to the stage of "it's that Graham Ellis from Melksham AGAIN", and without stretching any point beyond what is reasonable.
I've corresponded with my MP and he's duly acknowledged and asked the Department for Transport for further information and passed my point on; I await a substantive reply but really I should allow a little longer for that.
I've corresponded with the Department for Transport (mostly a one way traffic, I regret to say - but then thay say that they can't even acknowledge every letter on a subject if they get a flood) to make them aware of the TransWilts line and Melksham, and new data that wasn't available at the time that the Invitation to Tender was issued.
I've generated local interest; there's been 12000 "Save the Train" / "Melksham Station" leaflets printed and posted through almost every door ... to the extent that I've nearly run out. We've had a couple of meetings and a Kiss and Ride and last Saturday I could be seen walking through the town with a mask and a "Save the train" badge.
Now, really, we need to see who's going to be running the service.
Last Saturday in town, rumours were rife. Someone told me he had it that the First group were hot favourites, and someone else said that he had it on good authority that Stagecoach had good as won it. I don't know; I do know that we should be ready, as we come out of the eye of the storm, to congratulate the successful bidder and see how we can work best with them in the interests of travellers from Melksham, and travellers who want to go across Wiltshire - Chippenham to Salisbury, Swindon to Trowbridge, and so on.
Posted by gje at October 25, 2005 07:17 AM