Save the Melksham Train
Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Norwich - Great Yarmouth / Lowestoft Routes Become Community Rail Services - 1282/3649
Written by Lee on Thursday, 1st February 2007

Encouraging for the optimist & worrying for the cynical (link below.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/6320923.stm

Re: Norwich - Great Yarmouth / Lowestoft Routes Become Community Rail Services - 1282/3653
Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Friday, 2nd February 2007

Lee, I'm afraid yoiu are a bit of a cynic at times.

Here's a quote from an email I just sent out comparing the treatement that the "TransWilts" got during FGW's consultation to that which the Heart of Wessex got.

I've been given a very posh document on the "Heart of Wessex" partnership - the Bristol to Weymouth line via Bath, Trowbridge, Frome,  Yeovil, Dorchester (etc) where the community rail partnership is chaired by one of the WCC officers.  Notable to see all the successes they list in getting the timetable changes made for last December to suit the needs of the customers.    You may spot a slight note of jealousy in my wording, but really I wish them the best with that - good for them - and can we please have the same for the line that's all in Wiltshire as well as the one that dips in and out ;-)

If I were a cynic, I would say that the people who reviewed the consultation inputs took the Weymuth inputes seriously and acted on them, but they just has a good laugh at our aspirations and didn't do a single thing that helped move towards any of them.


Re: Norwich - Great Yarmouth / Lowestoft Routes Become Community Rail Services - 1282/3660
Written by Lee on Friday, 2nd February 2007

If I too were a cynic (which I strive not to be so much these days ;D) I would also point out that the Weymouth line aspirations appeared in the Network Rail Business Plan 2006 , but there was no reference to the Melksham passenger service.

Anyway , they WERE going to give the Weymouth line a 2 - hourly service , but ended up giving them roughly what they already had (with less carriages.)

 
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Save the Train was the campaign to bring an approriate train service back to and through Melksham.

Most big contributors are still around writing at the Coffee shop forum where new members are very welcome.

The train has been saved - sort of - we have stepped back up from an unusable service to a poorish one but it's doing very well. We did that through setting up the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership. That fulfilled its early objectives; it has been taken over by local and regional government types who are now doing medium and long term work. The team from this forun can also be found at the Melksham Rail User Group (which was the Melksham Rail Development Group at the time these articles were written and we had no users.

We mustn't loose sight, though, that the train service remains poor and needs our community support in marketing and campaigning to keep it going in a positive direction ... and all the more so when we're expecting to find a different normallity once we get out of the Coronavirus Pandemic and head for zero carbon via the climate crisis. Yes, it's saved ... it's now a key community facility ... the need for enhancement and the strong and near-universal local support remain, and the rail industry and goverment remain slow to move and provide the enhancements even to level us up with other towns. Please support the Melksham Rail User Group - now very much in partnership rather than protest with the rail industry and local government, including GWR, TransWilts and unitary and town councils. And please use the trains and buses, and cycle and walk when you can.

-- Graham Ellis, (webmaster), February 2021


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