Save the Melksham Train
Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Baffling Train Information - 1808/4581
Written by Steve Bray on Saturday, 31st March 2007

13:23 Hereford to London Paddington due 16:32
This train has been revised. It will no longer call at: Shipton. This is due to an unusually large passenger flow.

The above reason appears today, Saturday 31 March. Now, I'm 80 or so miles away from the Cotswold Line, but I suspect the real reason that the train will not call at Shipton is that a 3 car turbo is operating the service instead of an Adelante. The platform at Shipton is short, and may not be able to take a 3-car unit, although it can take a 5-car Adelante, because of the different door-opening system.

I was on this service 2 weeks ago, and a Turbo was substituting for the Adelante, and also didn't stop (the on-board announcement wasn't made until after we'd departed from Kingham, the previous stop). Obviously, I would be happy if the service is being so well used that it cannot call there, but somehow, I doubt it!

And I also see that the following Worcester to Paddington service has been cancelled. 

Re: Baffling Train Information - 1808/4590
Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Sunday, 1st April 2007

If your suggestion / guess is correct, I would be surprised.

Re: Baffling Train Information - 1808/4594
Written by Steve Bray on Sunday, 1st April 2007

I think that the stop at Shipton on this particular service is an "on request stop".

On the point of grandfather rights, I don't think you are quite correct.

HST's are allowed to stop at Honeybourne station on the Cotswold Line, although this station was closed for many years. When it re-opened (in the mid 80's I recall), HST's started to call there. On the other hand, Hanborough station never had HST's call there, and because of this,today any HST service is not able to stop there. At a rough guess, the platform lengths of both Honeybourne and Hanborough are fairly similar.

Another "live Update" which I noticed several months ago, was the 1822 Paddington to Hereford one Friday evening, having to terminate at Colwall "due to a fault". That update was posted about 2 hours prior to its planned stop at Colwall, which for those who don't know, is a tiny station (even smaller than Hanborough and Honeybourne), on a stretch of single track between Great Malvern and Ledbury.

Re: Baffling Train Information - 1808/4596
Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Sunday, 1st April 2007

[quote author=Steve Bray link=topic=1808.msg4594#msg4594 date=1175425705]
On the point of grandfather rights, I don't think you are quite correct.
[/quote]

Yes, I've probably not understood the detail; it was explained to me by an FGW Manager that the 125s couldn't stop at Melksham because it had been closed for 20 years and the right to stop long trains had been lost ... I probably jumped to one conclusion too many.

[quote]
Another "live Update" which I noticed several months ago, was the 1822 Paddington to Hereford one Friday evening, having to terminate at Colwall "due to a fault". That update was posted about 2 hours prior to its planned stop at Colwall, which for those who don't know, is a tiny station (even smaller than Hanborough and Honeybourne), on a stretch of single track between Great Malvern and Ledbury.
[/quote]

I'm not even going to guess  ;D

 
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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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