This is a "rum'un" - something I would not have believed, but delights me.

Conservative MPs visit Melksham on 7th July o support our campaign to "Save the Train".   Visit is "picked up" by the National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers and covered on their site ...

We seem to have truely cross party support.   All 4 MPs with consituencies on the northern and threatened section of the line have spoken out at Westminster in its favour.   That's both Conservative and Labour. Liberal Democrats who represent voters on the southern section have been pushing (and with success) for their end, and we've had local Lib Dem support too.

Parliamentary questions being asked by opposition spokemen relate to the matter - very specifically in a couple of issues raised by the Conservative Spokeman Chris Grayling, and certainly very much along the lines of questioning I've raised here by Alastair Carmichael for the LibDems.

Perhaps because there have been many other stupidities in the FGW franchise area that have effected far more people than are effected by the withdrawl of a single class "153" train.   Our cause actually effects a small number of current customers when you compare it to ...
* Keynsham into Bristol (rush hour - cut 12 coaches down to 4)
* Sleeper service (8 coaches being withdrawn from service)
and many other services.   So we haven't had quite the abiity to get the headlines - there's only a limited number of railway stories that people want to cover.  Of course, Sion, both you and I know that the provision of just 1 x 153 would make the difference between life and death for our service and in the light of the extra traffic brought in / losses made if they are NOT brought in it would be really cheap in First / DfT / subsidy terms for them to provide.

But now that the big and expensive fish have been dealt with, let's carry on playing for the smaller fish here that, by all signs, should grow into a much bigger one.

I am also willing to suggest / admit that in a personal capacity I could have been more effective if I was more pushy and had been up to speed and had more contacts when I started. But then I'm just one individual who happens to be visible here (and to whom you address the question) and there are other who were also asking questions long before I was even aware that the service that provided a major artery into my business was under threat.  Indeed, it was only due to a letter read in the local paper from one of these other campaigners that I became aware of the threat