Quote from the above link :
"Between 1990 and 2004 there was a ten per cent rise in greenhouse gas emissions, yet we have rural railways and stations under threat of closure and private train operators allowed deliberately to price people off trains."
The RMT have warned of the dangers of current rail policy before (link below.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/F3641215?thread=2441627So have others :
Christian Wolmar :
"Dozens of branch lines and secondary routes could shut , in what would be the biggest rethink of the network since the Beeching report in the 1960s , which led to the closure of 4,000 miles of railway and nearly half the nation's stations. Loss-making services would be transferred on to buses , as a means of reducing the £6bn-a-year subsidy."
Chris Grayling :
"This will pave the way for closures. There has been a lot of talk behind the scenes that ministers are now considering significant cutbacks. For the first time they now have the power."
Roger Ford , Modern Railways :
"If they want to save serious money they would have to cut many regional services and possibly whole swaths of lines."
Graham Ellis (link below.)
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/melkshamrailway/140_is_part_of_a_planned_war.html"Under the Greater Western Franchise, services are slashed ...
* Swindon to Westbury
* Trains stopping at Ivybridge
* Tamar Valley (Plymouth to Gunnislake)
* Liskeard to Looe
* Par to Newquay
* The Salisbury to Southampton local service only has a 1 year repreive
* The train service from Bristol to Severn Beach remains off peak only
In each case, one of the reasons outlined in my previous article for the "powers that be" to want to withdraw the service completely could be made. So I'm predicting a glooms future for these lines - I expect in 2 years time to see Ivybridge passengers for Plymouth taking the bus, and cars running over the viaduct at Bere Ferrers rather than trains. Express trains will fly past the site of Dean and Dunbridge stations, and extra freight will trundle through between. Severn Beach will be served by a bus running where the railway line used to be, and if you go down to the old site of Melksham station you'll find the railway land sold off for housing, and you'll hear the new residents in "Spencer's Gate", being built as I write, complaining about the all night noise of First's freight trains."
Transport 2000 described the Future Of Transport White Paper (click on
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_about/documents/divisionhomepage/031259.hcsp) as “two faced” :
"It included a lot of warm words and support for the environment , particularly in terms of moving national road charging forward and support for Smart Choices programmes such as workplace and school travel plans , but it was effectively calling a halt to tram schemes , encouraging local authorities to close railways and substitute buses , and crucially leaving the Government’s position on road building “muddy”"
Rail - replacement bus services for both Melksham & Newquay? (links below.)
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=424.msg1249#msg1249http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=473.msg1396#msg1396Here is an interesting article (link below.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/4041263.stm"The local lines involved are Gunnislake to Plymouth, Liskeard to Looe and St Erth to St Ives.
The latter were recommended for closure by Dr Beeching 40 years ago when he axed the branch network.
The then Transport Secretary, Barbara Castle, intervened personally calling Beeching's plans "slaughter of the innocents".
Mrs Castle ensured that two Cornish lines remained operational, describing the St Erth to St Ives as the most beautiful coastal journey in the country.
Andrew Griffiths, Wessex Trains' business manager for Devon and Cornwall, admits that the rolling stock used on the St Ives line desperately needs replacing.
Most of the passenger coaches are nearly 20 years old.
But Mr Griffiths supports retention of the line claiming that, with better marketing and more community involvement, the line has a crucial role to play."
"Mr George is urging the government to back local branch lines, contradicting the "use it or lose it" philosophy emanating from the Department of Transport."
Chris introduced Andrew Griffiths, new General Manager for Bristol and Somerset for First, who was seated beside him on the platform. Andrew was formerly with Wessex Trains, looking after the Cornish Branch lines, and did a sterling job in growing use and traffic there. We welcome him to this part of the network.
Andrew offered no hope / suggestions other than to keep writing and for the local authorities to work together on this one, which doesn't happen enough in this part of the country and is one of the reasons we're coming poorly out of this current series of reviews. ((I do hope this isn't a fillibuster to talk us out of time - perhaps I'm being unfair in even wondering))
Letter to the editor, Wiltshire Times ....
Dear Sir,
I'm writing to express my disgust at the new train timetable that First will be operating from this December, and in particular its effect on Westbury and Melksham.
Westbury was to have an hourly semi-fast service to London during the day ... that was in all the draft timetables, but in the final edition published last Friday, First have cut this service back to Bedwyn, leaving just occasional and erratically timed London trains during the day.
Melksham has fared even worse. "Use it OR loose it" they told us in 2001, and we (the residents of Melksham and users of the service) responded with an increase in ticket sales from 3,000 to over 27,000 per year. They should have said "use it AND loose it"; in response to a seven times increase in ticket sales, the service is being slashed. Until 8th December, you have a choice of 7 departures from London for Melksham each weekday - at 07:45, 11:05, 13:15, 15:05, 16:30, 19:35 and 20:45. from 11th December, there's just one train connecting from London at 17:30.
There's been a game of "cat and mouse" going on between the Department for Transport, the First Group, and Wilts County Council over these services, with each pointing at the others as being the ones who have made the decision or who could save the service. The victims of the game are the people of West Wiltshire, especially those who have to use the train because they can't afford a car, or they're unable to drive for medical reasons; for these people, a change involving 6 flights of stairs at Bath, or a walk across Chippenham from rail station to bus station is not a practical option.
Yours faithfully,
Graham Ellis
Graham explains the Swindon - Southampton train service success story in the link below.
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/open.html"The current train service has grown dramatically, in spite of a fearsome reputation for frequent cancellation (and that continues under First, with 4% of services not running in the last 3 weeks prior to this report being written), and replacement of trains by buses for engineering works (at least some trains have been replaced buses on the majority of weekends over the past year). Publicity for the service has been almost non-existent, even at Swindon and Chippenham stations where it was a "guest" service, and connections have been problematic when main line trains run late."
"Why has it been so successful in spite of the dreadful service? Alternative "end to end" services for the line involve a dogleg journey via Bath, with an awkward change and a very large number of steps. Some recommendations from national web sites even route passengers from Salisbury to Swindon via Basingstoke and Reading. Interchange from train to Bus at Chippenham adds 50 minutes to the journey time, with the bus not serving the station and a long walk or extra connection involved. And many of the passengers using the service are "core" users who do not have access to their own transport and who can't be easily displaced. The "choice" and "leisure" markets remain largely untapped."
Although the DfT are largely responsible for the demise of the Swindon - Southampton service , First must take their fair share of the blame for giving it a good kicking as it awaits its fate (link below.)
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=424.msg1249#msg1249"Interchange from train to Bus at Chippenham adds 50 minutes to the journey time, with the bus not serving the station and a long walk or extra connection involved."
They have just removed one of the main benefits of the Melksham train service.
"Why has it been so successful in spite of the dreadful service? Alternative "end to end" services for the line involve a dogleg journey via Bath, with an awkward change and a very large number of steps."
A Further response ....
We are working hard to improve disabled access at stations. Bath Spa will have lifts to both platforms in 2008, and Westbury will too soon after. We have just secured 7 'Access for All' grants for improving disabled access, including for Bradford-on-Avon. We will always do our best to help any mobility impaired passenger, including advising on where best to change trains.
To my untutored view, it looks like we've got a retrograde step as far as disabled travellers from (for example) Swindon to Trowbridge are concerned ... and for travellers with heavy luggage, mothers with puchchairs too .... in December 2006.
Sometime in 2008, part of the retrograde step will be recovered as changing at Bath will be made easier. But let's not fool ourselves - that net result is three steps backwards and one forward a year later. Net result - two steps backwards.
Cynical old me again , im afraid.
"It gets worse" link.
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/melkshamrailway/132_It_gets_worse.html"Andrew was able to tell us of a number of campaigning successes over the new train and franchise arrangements in the Great Western Area, including recently the buy-back of "Part of the Swindon to Southampton Service" - i.e. the section from Westbury to Southampton, and it sounds like there's better hope for Ivybridge which is threatened with service cuts.
For the Swindon to Westbury section? Congratulations from Andrew on raising the traffic levels by 100% in the last 3 years, but telling us that it's still not enough. Astonishing news to those of us who have travelled of late - at times it's getting hard to find a seating bay free now. We're still two trains a day. And the peak hour trains have been moved even further away from the true time they're needed, CONTRARY to all the requests that have been copied to me (at least) in reply to the consultation process that First ran. A real slap in the face!
If it's getting hard to get a seat now, and "even with another doubling of traffic the line still wouldn't be profitable", Andrew's telling us that ANY operation based on a single 153 train isn't economically justified and even if we fill the train, First will have to take it off."
The movement of the morning train yet earlier, and the evening train yet later, in spite of our consultation inputs for the reverse, looked like a slap in the face for Swindon to Melksham, Trowbridge and Westbury passengers. On my "blog" a couple of days ago, and in email too, I asked for the real reasons behind this - a bit of honesty - and I'm delighted to have received and answer from Andrew Griffiths. He writes.
As a quick glance at the timetable will show, we've had to resource the Melksham service using the Stroud Valley unit - which is why the timings can't me moved as we all would like. With two sections of single line and a busy mainline in between pathing is very constrained.
Andrew, THANK YOU for your honesty. And THANK YOU for confirming that you, too, would like to be providing us with a train at a more appropriate time.
I'm aware that the service was resourced from the Stroud Valley back in the days prior to Wessex trains, but since then it's been resourced from the Southampton / Westbury end. I don't yet understand why they've had to go back to supplying the train via the Stroud Valley with (as Andrew says) issues of single track from Swindon to Kemble as well, when there's trains of the type that will serve our line buzzing up and down through (and terminating at) Westbury all the time. There's even a Southampton to Westbury shuttle that could be extended through.
7. That the specification of SLC2 doesn't force First to run the service from the Swindon end; they are also allowed to run it from the Westbury end as it runs at present. The following would be valid: A service at 07:40 from Westbury (perhaps coming up from Weymouth), arriving Swindon at 08:25, returning at 08:40 from Swindon and getting to Westbury at 09:25 (perhaps continuing to Weymouth) Second service from Westbury at 16:40, Swindon 17:25 to 17:40, back in to Westbury at 18:25 - again Frome and Weymouth extension acceptable as part of the service on that line. First are NOT forced to give us the Stroud Valley train in what the report call "marginal time" - that's simply the cheap option they've chosen.
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