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Topic: What now for the Melksham line? (Read 3629 times)
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David Preston
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Now that the decision has been made to effectively cull the service, where does it leave us? It seems no one will listen. Reading todays Rail magazine Christian Wolmer makes reference to Firsts franchise in that the sums do not add up, and will fall flat on its face in 2010. In fact on the busy Thames Valley routes operated by FGW link, there is no case for any additional services to meet the ever increasing demand.
FGW will just increase its fares as much as it wants to extract as much as it can before the finances hit trouble which they no doubt will. I note the folks in Corsham are fighting to reopen their station, but they have the same chance as everyone in Melksham winning the national lottery. Basically the government falsely assumes that private money is helping the railway when in fact its taxpayers money. It have never invested any great amount in railways, and intends to continue this lack of support.
As a side issue, I have emailed the editors of "The Railway Magazine" and "Modern Railways" in support of this site and await their responses in articles in their magazines.
Who knows where the current status of Melksham will end. At least the DFT have not shut the station for good.
I personally think we the commuters should have a national strike which will really hit their finances to improve things for the better.
RIP The Current Melksham train service. Remembered with great fondness, efficiency and frequency. Supported by many.
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Graham Ellis
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RIP The Current Melksham train service. Remembered with great fondness, efficiency and frequency. Supported by many.
HEY - cut that out. Seriously, we're into something of an end game but there ARE chinks of light. I'm correlating a doozie of a lot of information and I'm going to be posting in the morning .... Many thanks for covering the railway press - not an area that I've tackled ... a very worthwhile one but I've got my day job to do as well. |
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Graham Ellis
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David, everyone else ... At the Stakeholder meeting on Monday - of which I got details last night - there was a question / specific mention of the service through Melksham. First and the Deparment for Transport are currently listening to aspirations and with a good business case could provide a better service ... or without such a case could simply provide the two trains, the "sop" being that our inputs will help them decide at what time of day the second trains runs. That latter feels rather like having us re-arrange the deckchairs on the Titanic. So - please read the details of the people who are gathering information and what I have submitted and make your inputs. We're into something of an intensive end-game and NOW is th e time to campaign stronger than ever. |
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Nick Field
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As a side issue, I have emailed the editors of "The Railway Magazine" and "Modern Railways" in support of this site and await their responses in articles in their magazines.
RIP The Current Melksham train service. Remembered with great fondness, efficiency and frequency. Supported by many.
Come on Dave, do you always give in that easliy? Where is you fighting spirit? There is plenty that can be done yet. Good news about the email to the rail mags, the more people that are aware the better I think. |
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Nick Field
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Graham
My letters have been written and sent today - one to Lesley Coleman and one to Peter West. I urge all others to do the same.
Nick.
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David Preston
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Graham,
I didn't mean to cause offence, am I sincerely hope we retain the current service to cater for the existing and potential customer base. I would also like to see Corsham, Wootten Bassett and Lavington (for Devizes) stations re-opened.
First's business case for the franchise is based on the economic trend continuing as is, but does not take into account for any down turn in numbers, fuel costs or any other economic factors. As Christain Wolmer mentions in the latest Rail magazine, history is repeating itself with First, as in the case of Virgin, offered massive premium to the government to run the service. It was hoped that in the case of Cross Country, Virgin would be paying £m300+ to the government. However what has since happened since Hatfield when there was a loss of confidence in the railway, the government has had to step in and save the Virgin franchise. It is run on a so called 'management contract', with us the taxpayer coughing up the full amount to run the franchise. Franchises lease everything they do and only 'own' the front line staff/drivers. So why bother having them? I wouldn't be surprised if First gets out the begging bowl in a few years time when the financial payback to the government gets too great and they can't fund it.
I do work in this great industry, and would like to see improved services, new track, new stations, longer trains, even new routes. However in the light of whats happening in the industry, I feel we are in for some bad times ahead. In the manufacturing industry for rail, it is particulary bad at the moment.
Another issue is pathing capacity. The GWML has regular FGW expresses, freight and local services. There are several bottlenecks on the system, but I don't perceive that Thingley Junc is one, when compared to the Bath-Bristol section, which is near capacity. Thats why the Bristol-Oxford service was curtailed.
Campaign groups can make a difference. Look at Yate and the station at Cam & Dursley, reopened through local lobbying. I remain hopefull that Melksham can retain its existing services, and without the risk of any more 'flames' I will keep my cynical views out of the forum. Dave.
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Graham Ellis
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David ... offense NOT taken - it was a welcome chance to remind people that there IS still a chink of light / a possibility. Although the door is almost closed, there's quite a bright light shining through the gap.
We need to get excellent cases to Lesley Coleman and Peter West (thanks, Nick, for your confirmation that you have).
I don't think we have a pathing / platforming issue at Swindon. We would have an issure trying to turn round at Chippenham, and at Westbury there may be a platforming issue; there has already been one at certain times of day and now that the extended Bedwyn train is turning round there, its dwell time may be important. We may need to remind people that platforms CAN BE SHARED and if the sharing is a regular timetabled movement, there's no need to stop-and-proceed the second train entering the platform.
On the wider political issues ... I'm choosing my battles carefully and concentrating on TransWilts. I'm aware of other issues close by such as "The Waterloo" and Bedwyn, but I don't know facts enough there to make fully educated statements, nor do I frankly have the time.
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