Today I received an email resposnse from Lesley Coleman regarding my letter I sent to her, it looks like the decision for whatever service level we will get lies with the DfT, copied and pasted as below:

Dear Mr. Field,

Firstly, may I take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time and effort to express your interest and concerns regarding the future of the Swindon - Salisbury services via Melksham. I have received your letter in the post today and am impressed by the level of detail and evidence that you provide to support the retention of these services.

I must explain the situation that we find ourselves in regarding the level and timetabling of these services. As you are well aware the original Greater Western Franchise Invitation to Tender and base specification made customers aware to the fact that there was a proposal to reduce the services from the current five to two. We were also asked by the DfT though to provide an alternative bid, once that was more enhanced, which would include running the services at the current level. Unfortunately the DfT chose not to buy this option as it would mean funding for additional rolling stock. It must be stressed that ultimately we have been asked to deliver a train service level specified by DfT.

I have recently received numerous letters and e-mails of concern from customers who use the current services and who express their own individual reasons for these services not to be reduced. Even though I am not the person responsible for the planning of the timetable I can reassure you that your feedback had been forwarded to our Operations Business Planning Manager and I will continue to do so. I note that these have also be sent to the DfT which can only help to influence the final decision as to the level of services serving this route.

Kind regards,

Lesley




Lesley Colman
Customer Liaison Manager
Internal :     07 - 79405
External :    01793 499405
Mobile :      07786 310521
E-Mail :       Lesley.Colman@FirstGroup.com

Word processors and computer systems are marvellous - quite a number of similar letters floating around 

I've dropped Lesley a reply, thanking her for passing on the information to the appropriate people, and asking her to let me know who the decision makers are at both First and the DfT so that we can ensure that they have the full views of their customers to hand as they take decisions.    I'll follow up here with any answers and as and when relevant post elsewhere too.