Save the Melksham Train
Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
DfT travel suggestion ... - 259/682
Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Friday, 16th June 2006

If you want to leave Melksham at about half past five and travel by public transport to Liverpool (a query I made last night), the DfT sponsored web site suggest you start off on the 17:34 bus ... and ... well - it's a complicated story, but you don't end up leaving Chippenham station until 18:48. Details

Perhaps there's an element of "softening us up" for worse public transport to come

Re: DfT travel suggestion ... - 259/684
Written by Sion Bretton on Friday, 16th June 2006

I remember once when the 17.59 was cancelled, National Rail Enq's advised to take next train to Bath, then change for train to Trowbridge then wait for next train

Re: DfT travel suggestion ... - 259/686
Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Saturday, 17th June 2006

For sure there's a lot of such bad advise around.  One of our customers waiting when the 17:02 failed to turn up was advised by the National Rail Enquiry line to hang around at Melksham station for the next train at 21:33 (the 18:09 also being cancelled) ...

Re: DfT travel suggestion ... - 259/829
Written by Lee on Tuesday, 11th July 2006

Here is a link to a recent Parliamentary Written Question on this.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm060706/text/60706w1492.htm#0607077000903

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of Statefor Transport how many people have used www.transportdirect.info in each of the last 12 months. [82211]

Dr. Ladyman: Statistics for both the number of people who have used Transport Direct and the number of pages that they have accessed are as follows:

The full statistics can be found in the above link , but the grand total is 4,781,905 user sessions and 41,681,977 pages accessed.


Re: DfT travel suggestion ... - 259/887
Written by Lee on Friday, 14th July 2006

Interest in Transport Direct appears to be growing in Westminster (link below.)
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmordbk1/60714w01.htm

Mr Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland):To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the value for money of the Transport Direct portal.

Re: DfT travel suggestion ... - 259/935
Written by Lee on Wednesday, 19th July 2006

Here are some answers on this (link below.)
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm060718/text/60718w1788.htm#column_274W

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the value for money of the Transport Direct portal.

Dr. Ladyman: The original Business Case for Transport Direct recorded three key value for money measures:

Achieve one million user sessions in the first year of service.

Achieve 10 million user sessions by the end of 2006.

10 per cent. of users reassess their travel habits as a result of the information provided by Transport Direct.

Of these measures:

The one millionth user session was achieved ten months after soft-launch of the service (soft-launched in July 2004, achieved in May 2005)

We are on course to achieve our ten millionth user session by the end of 2006.

Early results of user surveys have indicated that 64 per cent. of those who completed our surveys were considering a change of travel mode preference.

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment has been made of the impact of the Transport Direct portal on journey decisions, including modal shift.

Dr. Ladyman: The portal service includes a self-completion feedback questionnaire that has been designed to form part of the independent evaluation framework for the portal. The analysis of the first 1,002 forms (December 2005) indicates that:

64 per cent. of users who responded indicated a change of original travel mode preference for at least part of the journey.

In 33 per cent. of cases the respondent had made the journey previously and of these 51 per cent. indicated a change in original mode preference.

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many visitor hits Transport Direct has received; and what its advertising expenditure has been since it became operational.

Dr. Ladyman: Transport Direct usage is recorded in

 
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


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