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August 06, 2006
Flowers for Melksham. Flowers at Melksham.
The train service to Melksham is much valued by the local community. The station may be set in the back of an industrial estate, and it may be pretty minimalistic, but it's cherished and cared for. This year, with the First Group operating the service, you'll see that one of the unpaid friends of the station has carefully planted flowers in First's colours as a welcome to them. I'm told it's no easy matter keeping the flowers up at the station; it doesn't have a water supply and water has to be carried in from elsewhere - perhaps liaising with a local business on the estate at times that they're open, or bringing the water further if need be.
We do care for our train service in Melksham. And we do use it, in ever increasing numbers. There have been reliability issues over the years, and of late engineering works have disrupted the already limited service nearly every weekend - August's no exception with every weekend day effected in some way, and the month ending with complete closure for 9 days.
On current plans, our new train operator will cease running most of our trains in December. They're not being forced to give them up and there's a strong commercial case to run the service - see
We're not taking the planned removal of most of our trains lying down. You'll find activity on this site and elsewhere - including some very high places. Last week, I met our MP for the - let's see - 3rd or 4th time. I also met with some of the folks from the RMT union, and I'm meeting further senior politicians too. Everyone's very much on side to retain / improve the service. Everyone's pressing the case. They and we owe it to the people of Melksham; they care for their service, and if we don't shout about it, it looks like the users who really care for their station and service will be shafted.
Posted by gje at August 6, 2006 07:54 AM