Important update at base of post

A new petition has appeared on the Prime Minister's web site, saying:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Create a rail franchise to provide a hourly direct train service between Trowbridge and Swindon. The petition originator is a Martin Noke (anagram - "Trainmen OK" - thanks, Phil for that!) and the closing date is October 18th 2008.

Martin goes on to detail "There are currently only three passenger trains a day running between Trowbridge which is the county town of Wiltshire and Swindon which is the county's largest population centre. No additional track investment will be required. A regular train service would have a significant impact upon road congestion in the area."

An hourly service along the TransWilts corridor - linking Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Frome / Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury, as called for by the petitioner, is indeed what I consider to be the correct and appropriate level of service. I'm not alone in that view - it's shared by many others who are more educated on the subject than I am - indeed, if you study the corridor in depth it's probably the obvious conclusion. But with the big problems and stock shortages FGW are having elsewhere, to ask for such a service in the very short term could be one step too far.

There is plenty of time before Martin's petition closes, so at this stage I'll endorse his aim of an appropriate service - but I'll look to learn more to the background of his precise wording and service level request (and his suggestion that a new franchise be set up for the purpose!) before I make detailed comment on the specifics, or a decision whether or not to sign and to give my reasons.  One thing for sure - this may be an opportunity to restate the case for common sense on the TransWilts in place of the current 06:18 and 18:45 farce!

Petition is at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk  and I will follow up here with any more links to Martin's pitch that I come across, and my views, in the next few days.

And - Martin - if you're reading this (as lots of people do), please follow up with some more background to address the franchise and immediate level of service elements of your request - perhaps you know some things that are going on that I don't!

Update 2nd Feb 2008

I believe that I have identified the Martin Noke in question (there are several in Wiltshire, it turns out). However, the petition seems to have been running for a good few months already with hardly any signatures, and the petitioner doesn't seem to be actively promoting it in any way I've been able to find.

The request for a new franchise to run this (one) service is very specific in the petition, and (in my view) too prescriptive of the solution. Furthermore, the prescription is one that the government is very unlikely indeed to buy into.  In my view, other options which are far more likely to succeed are (a) within current franchise, (b) within SWT franchise or (c) Open Access, perhaps with some backing from County Council or Regional Development.  New franchise is a distant (d).

Considering these facts, I have decided NOT to sign the petition even though I agree with its much of what it calls for - an hourly train direct between Trowbridge and Swindon which would (one hopes, Martin?) also call at the communities of Melksham and Chippenham along the way.  My recommendation to anyone else is also do not sign unless you want to put your name to a request that calls for a perfectly reasonable service that we're moving towards, but asks that it be done using an organisation mechanism that's so impractical it just won't happen.