Those of you who have read the Freedom Of Information material posted on this site will remember the following :


QUOTES FROM CORRESPONDENCE SENT BY DAVID PHILLIPS (Wiltshire County Council) TO ANDREW SEEDHOUSE (Government Office Of The South West.)  (Dated 27/02/2006)

"2. REDUCTION OF FREQUENCY BETWEEN WESTBURY AND SOUTHAMPTON.
 
I believe that the SRA/DfT's decisions were based on train loadings in  Spring 2005. The Autumn 2005 counts (also by Wessex Trains) were 17%  higher. WCC has conducted its own surveys at Salisbury which show a  15% increase in Wessex Trains passenger numbers between Nov04 and  Nov05 - part of longer term growth. WCC June counts show a 14%  increase per annum over the last 2 years. All these counts point to  rapid growth in passenger numbers - this is a particularly strange  time to be considering a major frequency reduction!

The Bristol/Bath to South Coast Study recommended a two-trains per  hour service on this route (a service for which the financial case  "stacked up"). Why is this not being pursued?

3. REDUCTION OF FREQUENCY BETWEEN SWINDON AND WESTBURY (linked to the  preceding issue as some trains were through to Southampton)

Response from DfT on this issue seems be lacking. The justification  given for the service cut is low patronage. Well, I can't argue with  the existing patronage. But let's look closer:
 
3a) The route links several towns identified by the RSS as regionally  significant (Swindon / Chippenham / Salisbury) to the major urban area  of Southampton.

3b) It provides the only service for Melksham, a town of around 20,000  population.

3c) The low patronage of the existing service can be attributed to two  factors. One is the low level of service and some unfortunately  inconvenient timing of trains (e.g inconveniently early for start of  work, bad or non-existent connections at Westbury, a 27 minute wait at  Westbury on one of the services that runs through to Southampton).

3d) The other factor impacting patronage is the appalling reliability  of the service. For example, in the last two weeks, 8 out of 100  trains have been cancelled. This is not all that unusual. WCC has  conducted a user survey and reliablilty features as a major issue.

3e) Forecasting the patronage of a better and more reliable service  is, of course, a difficult exercise. My preliminary estimate (based on  census data for commuting and an examination of similar flows from  other Wilts stations) is that Melksham should have a weekday patronage  of about 400 - or about ten times the current figure. Travel from  other stations would also increase - the WCCsurvey shows that the  threatened services are used as part of long distance journeys & not  just for local travel.

3f) It is WCC policy (contained in the LTP) to seek improvements to  this service as part of the overall strategy for Western Wiltshire. As  part of this, the station at Melksham would be improved (possibly  relocated) and its access arrangements improved (a third reason why  current patronage is low).

Does the phrase "deliberately running down services" trigger any  memories? If the Minister doesn't want to hear this one again, then  perhaps it's time to have a more reasonable look at the prospects for  this service - perhaps using the cost-benefit method (under  consultation) to be adopted for line closures. What do you think?"

The above is reproduced from the most recent FOI revelations. Many thanks for the kind permission granted for "research purposes."

Speaking of research , imagine my surprise when I visited the First Great Western website this morning , only to find that their handy December 2006 timetable directory had been replaced by the link below!
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=378

It must be Friday again.

In keeping with the Save The Train policy of providing as much information as possible , here is a link that should solve this problem.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/F?thread=3372345

Good old FGW.  So they are not even advising people to use their own buses to railhead at Chippenham from places like Calne / Melksham and the surounding villages?  Perhaps there is a reason behing that?  This could actually lead to more traffic congestion in Chippenham what with a retail park on one side of the station and on the other side the only road leading up to the station serves a large housing estate, a leisure centre plus other shops and businesses

We've lacked marketing activity for a l-o-n-g time on the TransWilts and it does seem that First have even less interest in it than initially we expected - like there's none.  There seems to be activity almost everywhere else, even on other lines that have had cuts made at the behest of the DfT.