| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Widening my interest? - 131/311 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Sunday, 29th January 2006 OK - the question's been asked several time - "Why this particular service" and "are you interested in other travel / transport issues". The train service from Swindon to Salisbury and Southampton IS an important one at a county and regional level - it's been identified as such in Wiltshire Council's transport plan and the growth figures in spite of the infreqent service, poor stations in some towns and its abysmal reliability record (which may or may not be justified) rather confirms that. It's also very much a lifeline connection to and from Melksham - there's many a long distance journey that starts or end here (and there would be a lot more short distance ones too if it ran every two hours as I advocate!). link to index of articles |
|||
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 | |||
|
|||
Further Information:
Home
Current Summary
Daily update
User forum
Consultation
Service now
Service future
Future Analysis
Recent Statistics
Recent letters
Letter to DfT
Save the train
Presentation
Support us
Other Maps
Station facilities
Station approach
Pictures
Trains diverted
History
About Melksham
Site Map
About this site