| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Key players - the TransWilts rail service - 4407/8161 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Friday, 12th October 2007 I have found it very complex indeed to work out "who is who" with regards to decisions on the provision of an appropriate train service on the TransWilts line. As of mid October 2007, here is a summary of the key players in the jigsaw. This list is written to the best of my availability / in limited time - so is errors and omissions excepted. The Major Decision Makers * Department for Transport Specify franchises, sign off rolling stock leases, etc Ruth Kelly - Secretary of State for Transport Tom Harris - Government Minister in charge of Rail Mike Mitchell - Director General of Railways Peter West - Civil servant who looks after FGW Franchise David Hibbs - Civil servant, community Rail Andrew Nock - Civil servant with close involvement Brian Walsh - Civil servant with close involvement * First (Great Western) Train Operating Company Moir Lockhead - Managing Director, First Group Andrew Haines - Chief Operating Officer, First Great Western Tom Stables - Commercial Director, First Great Western John Curley - Route Director West, First Great Western Andrew Griffiths - Region Manager, Severn and Solent, First Great Western * Wilts County Council Transport Authority for Wiltshire. Judy Seager - Chair of Council Fleur de Rhe-Philipe - Cabinet Member in charge of travel, transport, tourism Keith Robinson - Chief Executive, Wilts County Council George Batten - Director of Environmental Services Allan Creedy - Transport section Eric Egar - Transport section David Philips - Transport section And who else can wield a lot of influence? * Members of Parliament representing stations on the immediate line Ann Snelgrove - Labour, Swindon South Andrew Murrison - Conservative, Westbury [inc Trowbridge and Warminster] Robert Key - Conservative, Salisbury James Gray - Conservative, North Wilts [inc Chippenham] Michael Ancram - Conservative, Devizes [inc Melksham] * Government's Ambassador for South West Ben Bradshaw - MP for Exeter * MPs with linked services Michael Wills - Labour, Swindon North Don Foster - Liberal Democrat, Bath David Heath - Liberal Democrat, Somerton and Frome Sandra Gidley - Liberal Democrat, Romsey * Shadow Cabinet and other spokesmen Theresa Villiers - MP for Chipping Barnet, Transport Shadow * Parliamentary Transport Sub-committee Gwynth Dunwoody (MP for Crewe) * Network Rail Dave Ward - Route Director West * Passenger Focus Mike Greedy * Others at First Great Western Glenda Lamont - Customer Service Director Lesley Coleman - Customer Panel Peter Jobson - Area manager, Westbury * Parliamentary Candidates for the new Chippenham marginal Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones - Conservative Duncan Hames - Liberal Democrat Nick Thomas-Symonds - Labour * Government Office South West Peter Dawson Richard Bayly * Severnside Community Rail Partnership Keith Walton * Other organisations with influence may include ... First Great Western Customer Panel South West Regional Assembly Swindon Council Office of Rail Regulator District Councils Regional Developement Authority Town and Parish Councils ROSCOs Trades Unions Campaign and special interest Groups * Campaign for Transport (ex Transport 2000) David Redgewell Cat Hobbs * Travel Watch South West Chris Irwin (Chair) Gordon Edwards (Secretary) * RailFuture Nigel Bray - Chair, Severnside Branch * Melksham Rail Development Group Peter Blackburn (Chair) John Hamley (Secretary) * West Wilts Rail Users Group John Ingram (Chair) Sion Bretton * CANBER (Campaign against new Beeching Report) Lee Fletcher * Save the Train Graham Ellis Influential Individuals not otherwise mentioned Christian Woolmar Barry Doe Some Notes a) This listing is written specifically to cover the "Savethetrain" campaign for a TransWilts service. Most of the people involved have a wider role that just this one service, so much of the information is good for others too. b) The "Campaign and special interest groups" section lists organisations and people who are - just like myself - campaigning for improvements. They are almost without exception very helpful, but doing the campaigning in their spare time and they are not the decision makers in any way. c) You'll see I have not published contact details for the above people as I don't want this page to become a source of spam for them. You can find out much more about most of them by doing a google search, and for most organisations you'll find they have emails taht conform to a pattern such as: forename.surname@firstgroup.com forename,surname@dft.gsi.gov.uk forenamesurname@wiltshire.gov.uk Re: Key players - the TransWilts rail service - 4407/13011 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Saturday, 11th July 2009 An update - July 2009 It's amazing how often the faces change!. On this "first pass" I am just deleting the names who are no longer "in role" and I will add other names in later. Please let me know (email graham@wellho.net if not a signed up member!) of anyone who is no longer in post but remains listed The Major Decision Makers * Department for Transport Specify franchises, sign off rolling stock leases, etc [s]Ruth Kelly - Secretary of State for Transport[/s] [s]Tom Harris - Government Minister in charge of Rail[/s] Mike Mitchell - Director General of Railways Peter West - Civil servant who looks after FGW Franchise David Hibbs - Civil servant, community Rail Andrew Nock - Civil servant with close involvement Brian Walsh - Civil servant with close involvement * First (Great Western) Train Operating Company Moir Lockhead - Managing Director, First Group [s]Andrew Haines - Chief Operating Officer, First Great Western[/s] [s]Tom Stables - Commercial Director, First Great Western[/s] [s]John Curley - Route Director West, First Great Western[/s] [s]Andrew Griffiths - Region Manager, Severn and Solent, First Great Western[/s] * Wilts [s]County[/s] Council Transport Authority for Wiltshire. Judy Seager - Chair of Council [s]Fleur de Rhe-Philipe - Cabinet Member in charge of travel, transport, tourism[/s] Keith Robinson - Chief Executive, Wilts [s]County[/s] Council George Batten - Director of Environmental Services Allan Creedy - Transport section Eric Egar - Transport section David Philips - Transport section And who else can wield a lot of influence? * Members of Parliament representing stations on the immediate line Ann Snelgrove - Labour, Swindon South Andrew Murrison - Conservative, Westbury [inc Trowbridge and Warminster] Robert Key - Conservative, Salisbury James Gray - Conservative, North Wilts [inc Chippenham] Michael Ancram - Conservative, Devizes [inc Melksham] * Government's Ambassador for South West Ben Bradshaw - MP for Exeter * MPs with linked services Michael Wills - Labour, Swindon North Don Foster - Liberal Democrat, Bath David Heath - Liberal Democrat, Somerton and Frome Sandra Gidley - Liberal Democrat, Romsey * Shadow Cabinet and other spokesmen Theresa Villiers - MP for Chipping Barnet, Transport Shadow * Parliamentary Transport Sub-committee [s]Gwynth Dunwoody (MP for Crewe)[/s] * Network Rail [s]Dave Ward - Route Director West[/s] * Passenger Focus Mike Greedy * Others at First Great Western [s]Glenda Lamont - Customer Service Director[/s] Lesley Coleman - Customer Panel Peter Jobson - Area manager, Westbury * Parliamentary Candidates for the new Chippenham marginal Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones - Conservative Duncan Hames - Liberal Democrat Nick Thomas-Symonds - Labour * Government Office South West Peter Dawson Richard Bayly * Severnside Community Rail Partnership Keith Walton * Other organisations with influence may include ... First Great Western Customer Panel [s]South West Regional Assembly[/s] Swindon Council Office of Rail Regulator [s]District Councils[/s] Regional Developement Authority Town and Parish Councils ROSCOs Trades Unions Campaign and special interest Groups * Campaign for Better Transport (ex Transport 2000) David Redgewell Cat Hobbs * Travel Watch South West Chris Irwin (Chair) Gordon Edwards (Secretary) * RailFuture Nigel Bray - Chair, Severnside Branch * Melksham Rail Development Group Peter Blackburn (Chair) [s]John Hamley (Secretary)[/s] * West Wilts Rail Users Group [s]John Ingram (Chair)[/s] Sion Bretton * CANBER (Campaign against new Beeching Report) Lee Fletcher * Save the Train Graham Ellis Influential Individuals not otherwise mentioned Christian Woolmar Barry Doe 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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