Save the Melksham Train
Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
West Wilts Rail Users Group Launch Petition For Free Pensioner Rail Travel - 3138/6491
Written by Lee on Wednesday, 25th July 2007

The secretary of the West Wilts Rail Users Group has launched a petition to lobby for free travel for senior citizens (link below.)
http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/latestheadlines/display.var.1569084.0.petition_launched_for_free_travel.php

Bob Lee , of Dilton Marsh , has started a petition on the Prime Minister's 10 Downing Street website (link below.)
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/freeseniorsrail

Mr Lee is calling for Govenrment-funded free off-peak rail travel in England for people aged 65 and over.

(Edit required to show correct petition website address , sorry....)



Re: West Wilts Rail Users Group Launch Petition For Free Pensioner Rail Travel - 3138/7394
Written by Lee on Tuesday, 4th September 2007

Pensioners using bus passes to travel free on trains have doubled passenger numbers on a rural railway this summer (link below.)
http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2007/09/free_pensioners_double_passeng.html#more

Trains on the Heart of Wales line

 
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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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