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January 29, 2006
Current status ...
* Wessex trains run the service up to and including 31st March
* First take over as from 1st April
* Service of 5 trains per day each way (4 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday) continues until the 2nd weekend in December
* Service is then reduced to 2 trains each way daily, Monday to Friday only.
Timetables are already in place for the first three steps listed above, but there is still an element of doubt concerning the service as from December. At a stakeholder meeting in January, the First group stated that they were still collecting "aspirations" in order to plan the services that they should provide - however, they have also written to me and told me that without Department for Transport approval they cannot increase the service level.
This is a small but important service that, frankly, I wouldn't have expected to have got the same careful attention as London to Bristol ... but it DOES deserve careful consideration and there's still time - probably just a week or two - for you to get your inputs to people like Peter West at the Department for Transport and Lesley Coleman at First (links to their addresses) so that - together - they can come to a careful decision.
Ticket sales have grown - again - by 35% in the figures published AFTER the new service level was specified, and even since those newest figures I've noticed trains getting busier and busier. If Peter or Lesley is reading this, can I tell them that they'll earn our huge thanks and custom and respect if they're able to admit that the service level should be improved in the light of the recent data that the original decision makers simply didn't have.
Posted by gje at January 29, 2006 06:06 PM