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November 21, 2006
2 weeks to go
Just over 2 weeks to go to the end of the train service that my customer have used for the past 5 years in increasing numbers to come to their courses in Melksham. 8th december will be the end of an era for us, as I puty my last passenger onto the 17:02 to Swindon, connection on to London, with my car at hand to give him a lift in case it's cancelled.
It's been a fabulous service for us - and we account for perhaps 0.05% of the journeys made on the line - so know that our heartache is shared many times over. Over 14,600 separate host computers have visited this website in just over a year, and each one - each visitor - has a story to tell.
Many lies and halftruths have been told over the last year, and many officials in Government and train operating companies have been less that helpful. I'm not a great one for conspiracy theories but at times I have wondered. I conclude that we're loosing the service because no-one can be bothered to market it and make a living from it as it's not dig enough, that we're loosing the service because some clever statistitians have seen that they can (technically) run a line without a train, and perhaps that our train gets in the way of mainline trains ... even when it's on time, it can cause THEM further delay and FGW's expresses have a poor timekeeping record. The long single line section and lack of loops doesn't help ....
On indicators such as current performance trends, environment, planned growth, surveys such as Jacobs, economic effect on the area the withdrawl is just plain stupid.
Posted by gje at November 21, 2006 11:47 AM