| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/674 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Wednesday, 14th June 2006 On Friday, 7th July, the shadow spokesman for transport (Chris Grayling) and our own MP (Michael Ancram) will be visiting Melksham station at around 11 a.m. to lend their support to our campaign to retain appropriate train services to and through Melksham on the Swindon - Westbury - (Salisbury) - (Southampton) line. Further details to follow Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/675 Written by Nick Field on Wednesday, 14th June 2006 Excellent news, but will there still be time for the draft timetables to be amended by the 7th of July? Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/677 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Wednesday, 14th June 2006 I don't know; it's very much 11:59 for them to come, but I'm going to shout about the visiti ahead of time / look to start to take advantage of increased interest and visibility within the next 48 hours. Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/683 Written by Sion Bretton on Friday, 16th June 2006 Why that time when there are no trains due, so no-one will be at the station. Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/687 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Saturday, 17th June 2006 Probably for their logistics. Yes, I would have preferred it to have been a time when there was a service passing through, but that's merely a preference and I don't think it will make a huge difference that there's no train. Almost makes a point if they get stuck on the road and have trouble finding the station ;-). It's taken a while to set up at all, and I'm very grateful to them for coming. Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/729 Written by Sion Bretton on Thursday, 29th June 2006 Had a letter from Michael Ancram's Private Secretary to advise he is comming but I am unable to get day off or I would be there Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/746 Written by Nick Field on Monday, 3rd July 2006 Finally I can confirm that I will be there, I will be coming by car though as I have other appoinments on the day and wont be able to hang around for the afternoon train!! Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/754 Written by Sion Bretton on Monday, 3rd July 2006 good see someone be there. Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/770 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Wednesday, 5th July 2006 We're not going to have a huge gathering, but it will be an impressive one. I've commented to some folks that I hoped to be able to serve teas and coffess ... we've done so in the past, but we cannot do so on this occasion - health and safeety reasons. My apologies; that's really a side issue anyway, and we can concentrate on the question in hand - an appropriate train service. Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/786 Written by Sion Bretton on Friday, 7th July 2006 Hope all goes well, I would of come but unable to get the day off worlk. Let us know how it went. Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/791 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Friday, 7th July 2006 A Huge THANK YOU to Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram for coming along today and giving us their support. They take to Westmister with them a view of a service that show much that's good in secondary rail services - a real success story that's had traffic rise 8 fold in 5 years to 109,000 journeys per annum, through towns such as Chippenham (44,000) and Melksham (24,000) which are set to grow by 30% in the next few years. Chris spoke of all the money being spent on the Railway Industry through Network Rail, much on big "showcase" type projects, where at the same time the DfT are "cheesepairing" and trying to save a few quid here and there on short term cuts to services which are getting more viable not less year on year, and will be sorely missed in 5 years time if they're axed in 5 months time. Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/798 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Saturday, 8th July 2006 See a few further comments / picture on my personal blog archive Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/800 Written by Sion Bretton on Saturday, 8th July 2006 Good to see some people there, but how many of them have used Train Services from Melksham. Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/804 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Saturday, 8th July 2006 A surprising number ... ((Graham thinks to himself)) ... just thinking back I can come up with 12 straight away. I'm sure you'll appreciate that I had better not publish a list of names here, though ... A number of apologies from other USERS too, as well as from official representatives, etc. Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/890 Written by Lee on Saturday, 15th July 2006 Here is an article on this from the Swindon Advertiser website. http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.835021.0.mps_back_rail_protest.php Re: Visit to Melksham Station by Chris Grayling and Michael Ancram - 257/895 Written by Sion Bretton on Sunday, 16th July 2006 Yes I read a report in Wiltshire Times. Shame picture & headline were not larger & at top of a page. Still it was in the paper. link to index of articles |
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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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