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Topic: More Train, Less Strain Campaign Meeting tonight (Read 2854 times)
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Ruthg
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I was at the More Train, Less Strain Campaign Meeting, with BBC Points West broadcasting live (?), Bristol Evening Post, plus others.
The campaign is planning to have a fare strike day on the morning of Monday 22nd January and will be issuing passengers with Cattle Truck class tickets to hand in or show to FGW staff.
Someone from Passenger Focus was there who says that there "needs to be a sea-change" i.e. people need to contact the DFT to get them to do something about the poor service rather than complaining to FGW.
I asked the spokesmen for the campaign that if they got any concessions from FGW could they stress to them that they only want extra carriages as long as it's not at the expense of other services (which they totally agreed with). I specifically mentioned the Save the Train campaign and the fact that the Monday morning train from Swindon-Westbury was cancelled, whereas the 06.47 service from Frome had 4 carriages.
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« Last Edit: January 16, 2007, 09:54:45 PM by Ruthg »
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bubblecat
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Hey Ruth!
I was there too!
I remember you now - as far as I know it - the carriages on the 06.47am came from Cornwell - not your line......and not really the point - they came from somewhere else that then had to suffer.
It too think that it's a Goverment issue - that they need to take on board that the franchises do not want to take on board (excuse the pun), the "less profitably" parts, whether that's Frome to Westbury or Westbury -Swindon....or infact, the Cornwell part of the branch that they "stole" the carriages from in the first place.
I support Tony's view that this should be a Nationwide effort - that this campaign should be against the way franchises were set up in the first place.
There needs to be a debate about the way in which they should be run in the future - Nationwide!
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Graham Ellis
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I was at the More Train, Less Strain Campaign Meeting, with BBC Points West broadcasting live (?), Bristol Evening Post, plus others.
The campaign is planning to have a fare strike day on the morning of Monday 22nd January and will be issuing passengers with Cattle Truck class tickets to hand in or show to FGW staff.
Someone from Passenger Focus was there who says that there "needs to be a sea-change" i.e. people need to contact the DFT to get them to do something about the poor service rather than complaining to FGW.
I asked the spokesmen for the campaign that if they got any concessions from FGW could they stress to them that they only want extra carriages as long as it's not at the expense of other services (which they totally agreed with). I specifically mentioned the Save the Train campaign and the fact that the Monday morning train from Swindon-Westbury was cancelled, whereas the 06.47 service from Frome had 4 carriages.
Thanks for that report, Ruth .. and for your inputs on the "TransWilts". So sorry I couldn't make it; probably my two most important evening meetings in January on the SAME night and I was up with 'a major boardcasting corporation' in London. Sion reports elsewhere that we have lost the whole Westbury to Swindon service all week. But of course they're sending diverted expresses along it during the evening ... I wish the 20:35 out of Paddington last night (diverted via Swindon on its way to Westbury) had stopped at Melksham - it would have saved me the need to drive ... |
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Lee
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Hey Ruth!
I was there too!
I remember you now - as far as I know it - the carriages on the 06.47am came from Cornwell - not your line......and not really the point - they came from somewhere else that then had to suffer.
It too think that it's a Goverment issue - that they need to take on board that the franchises do not want to take on board (excuse the pun), the "less profitably" parts, whether that's Frome to Westbury or Westbury -Swindon....or infact, the Cornwell part of the branch that they "stole" the carriages from in the first place.
I support Tony's view that this should be a Nationwide effort - that this campaign should be against the way franchises were set up in the first place.
There needs to be a debate about the way in which they should be run in the future - Nationwide! That view is very much part of my own campaign : When CANBER was launched , I sent out a raft of e-mails , each of which contained the following quote :
"It is our intention to start a debate on the future of the rail network."
Our view was that the true state of the rail network , and what was happening to it , was being deliberately kept quiet. For that reason (and others) , I applaud the fact that virtually every transport group in the South West spoke out against the "bustitution" of the Looe & St Ives lines , thus giving out a signal that FGW could not ignore.
First battle won , many more to follow , perhaps sooner than we think. By the way , I have updated the "Links" section of the CANBER website (link below.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/G1517Aidan (Eye On Manchester) , many thanks for including a link , but I should point out that I am a Save The Train Forum moderator and not a Save The Train Forum manager..... Thats Graham's job  |
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Lee
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Here is a BBC report on the meeting (link below.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/6269875.stm"We want people to demonstrate peacefully - to take a fare strike ticket (a fake ticket printed by the group) on Monday (22/01/2007) which won't have any monetary value but will hopefully mean they wont have to buy a ticket," said Simon Carpenter of More Trains Less Strain. "It's our way of demonstrating and saying we don't value the existing service. " "The tickets will be issued in the morning at Bath Spa, Oldfield Park and Keynsham stations between 7.30 and 8.45," |
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Lee
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More on this , courtesy of Save Severn Tunnel Junction (link below.) http://www.saveseverntunnel.co.uk/Tony Ambrose, spokesman for the group, catches the train daily from Bath Spa to Bristol Temple Meads as he commutes to work. He said: "The cheek of it is that fares went up with the timetable change at the same time they reduced the frequency and length of the trains. We understand First Great Western has got rid of 20 carriages from the line in a bid to save £20,000 a year. "In a lot of cases with the Bristol routes, they have cut the number of coaches from four to two, which means people simply cannot get on the trains. "A system which was working at full capacity before the cuts is suffering really badly now." The campaign has attracted the support of the RMT union. Executive member Alex Gordon, who works for First as a train driver, said: "Our members are appalled by the 20 per cent cut in rail services we have seen in the past four weeks. We are telling everyone to make alliances with their local councillors and MPs to draw attention to these cuts." Last Friday, Alison Forster, managing director of First, published an open letter as a full-page advert in the Evening Post, in which she said the firm had "carried out a review" of services and as a direct result had decided to increase the number of carriages on the 0647 Frome to Cardiff service, providing an extra 106 seats. She angered commuters then thanking "customers for their continued support." Tom Daniel of Bath, who commutes into Bristol said: "Why thank us? We're all miserable and want things changed." |
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