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July 07, 2006
Visit by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram
A Huge THANK YOU to Chris Grayling (shadow transport secretary) and Michael Ancram (our MP) for coming along today and giving us their support.
They take to Westmister with them a view of a service that shows much that's good in secondary rail services - a real success story that's had traffic rise 8 fold in 5 years to 109,000 journeys per annum, through towns such as Chippenham (44,000) and Melksham (24,000) which are set to grow by 30% in the next few years.
Fantastic also to see senior representatitves of First, local councils, the county council, the BBC (national coverage), local press, users, local business people, Melksham Rail Development group .. and please forgive me anyone I've missed out.
A dreary morning ... no passenger trains (after the 09:12, we have nothing to 13:35 as it is) but a unanymous view from everyone who spoke that cutting down from the current service to trains at 7:15 a.m. and p.m. only ... will result in a service that carrys fresh air around - exaclty what the previous transport secretary, Alastair Darling, said he did NOT want to happen.
Derek Twigg, Douglas Alexander. I challenge you. Take action to safeguard the service and to let the bud bloom into a flower. Don't let it gown down the "fresh air" route that is NOT your stated policy.
More about what Chris Graying had to say on the forum, and to follow later
Posted by gje at July 7, 2006 07:21 PM