| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
A circular route which may be interesting.... - 55/108 Written by David Preston on Monday, 7th November 2005 Did you know that when the famous Swindon railway works was in operation, the operating department used to send the newly built locomotives on a circular route from Swindon, via Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, avoiding Westbury to Newbury, (sometimes using the long closed Devizes branch - which Melksham could be the railhead for Devizes today), right up to Reading and back via Didcot to Swindon. Imagine if a passenger service operated along those lines (sorry about the pun) in both directions connecting most of Wiltshire with Berkshire. Speaking of Devizes, we could promote Melksham as the local railhead for people in the area, working with local bus companies to provide connecting services. [glow=red,2,300]Dave. [/glow] Re: A circular route which may be interesting.... - 55/109 Written by Nick Field on Monday, 7th November 2005 On the subject of the old Devizes line I remember reading in one of the local papers about 3 years ago that some guy was to be paid about Re: A circular route which may be interesting.... - 55/110 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Wednesday, 9th November 2005 [quote author=David Preston link=topic=55.msg108#msg108 date=1131380734] Imagine if a passenger service operated along those lines (sorry about the pun) in both directions connecting most of Wiltshire with Berkshire. Speaking of Devizes, we could promote Melksham as the local railhead for people in the area, working with local bus companies to provide connecting services. [glow=red,2,300]Dave. [/glow] [/quote] There was a suggestion in fairly recent times that the Link train from Paddington to Bedwyn be extended to Westbury, with alternate journeys returning via Melksham - turning the thing into a circular route. Re: A circular route which may be interesting.... - 55/111 Written by David Preston on Wednesday, 9th November 2005 Any Railhead is better than nothing, which is sadly what Devizes, Seend and the surrounding area have. There was some talk a whole ago of a station at Lavington being built (Lavington Parkway), but like Corsham station, has foundered through lack of cash. With Chippenham/Melksham being fairly local stations, its best to promote their use. If we extend Melksham's station catchment area to include the areas not rail served and make the service attractive (regular trains), then people will use it. 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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