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September 21, 2007
Frustrated but not depairing
I fear that I've made a number of negative posts recently to various forums; please put some elements of that down to frustration rather than despair.
It's frustrating to be told that we "must be patient" and "things don't happen overnight". I agree - but we have been patient for over 2 years - the seeds of the campaign for an ongoing appropriate TransWilts train service started in the Spring of 2005, and here we are now, some 27 months later, being told not to be hasty in our expectations.
It's frustrating to see timetable proposals made and a lot of good work done, but all come to no weekday improvement at all, and all we left with is the carcass to pick over when it's thrown to us (with bits deleted!) under the Freedom of Information act. People need train services to travel on; they cannot travel on stillborn proposals.
And it's frustrating to see, still, a minority of key players still manipulating words and statistics rather than looking at a less biased view of the picture as a whole. Just today, I've come across one person comparing trains back to 1994 and claiming credit that there's been no grerat loss of number of services since then ... when in the same period actual passenger number have risen 50%. And another person trying to discount Melksham ticket sales by 2/3 because of the number of tickets sold to people travelling from Trowbridge rather than Melksham - except she was trying to discount actual on-train surveys. I hope both of these ladies are ashamed of themselves. But I would love to leave let all those bygones by bygones, and let us all pull together, for a sensible solution.
First Great Western, the Department for Transport, and Wiltshire County Council all employ some very impressive personel, at many levels across each organisation. I'm not going to embarrass any individuals here, but I do feel that it's all too rare that I write in praise and admiration of these people, even if (at times) I might not agree with the message they have to give.
I have been reading a comment or three about the "More Train Less Strain" campaign, and comparisons to our forum(s). Different railway line, different metrics, and I suspect different objectives and methods. We have certainly not advocated some of their approaches, but then we have participated in some activities and groupings where they have been conspicuous by their absence. So, once again looking to cut the negarive, may I look forward.
Whilst "The system" may or may not be broken, we've not chosen as our battle ground a desire to alter the system - indeed arguments as to whether or not it is broken are something of a distraction. And something people will argue over. Our objective is to regain and retain an appropriate train service across Wiltshire, linking the five largest population centres of Swindon, Salisbury, Chippenham, Trowbridge and Melksham. And we're delighted to add in the significant towns of Westbury and Warminster, Frome which is just as large and logically linked in with transport flows, and Dilton Marsh where you can stand on what was an isolated station platform a few years ago and see the residential housing come marking ever closer month by month.
Unlike the political case and some other campaigns, our enjoys near-universal support. It's such a no-brainer once you start getting into the wider case that the "TransWilts" becomes a natural service to provide - as suggested by Parkman in 2000, Jacobs in 2004 and - we trust - provided by Haines, de Phililipe, Kelly and team in 2008. But we need to work with these people's teams in order to pull around the last few doubting Thomases and Rosies, to help provide data for the best solid case to ensure that it won't fall again at the last fence, and to ensure that the train stays on the track once it's been placed there.
Posted by gje at September 21, 2007 07:10 PM