| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
And more cancellations .... - 62/133 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Thursday, 1st December 2005 I don't know whether to laugh or cry .... Two customers leaving on the 17:02, so I checked on line. [color=Red]Cancelled[/color] say the web site. And for the following train too. Phoned the National Rail Enquiry line who confirmed that it was indeed cancelled and told me that they didn't know of any alternative plans. Advise was for my customers to wait for the 21:33. In the post this morning, a long waited answer from my MP with a copy of a letter from Derek Twigg. Re: And more cancellations .... - 62/135 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Saturday, 3rd December 2005 an update on this thread ... We had customers commuting by train to Melksham on Thursday and Friday last week for a course - or so they (and we) had hoped. On Thursday, they travelled on the 08:30 Bristol to London express to Chippenham, changed into the Melksham train there, and arrived on time. A good journey - how it should be. Thursday evening and the 17:02 from Melksham was cancelled. I telephone National Rail Enquiries to ask about alternative arrangements and was told that they knew of none and that the next train was at 21:33. I put my customers on the bus to Bath! Friday morning, and I got a phone call from Bath. The Bristol express was being diverted and after Bath it wasn't stopping until Reading; no-one at Bath could tell them when the next service to Chippenham would be, and in any case the connection would have long gone. They got the bus again and arrived with us about an hour late and not in the best of spirits / moods. On Friday evening, they didn't even try for the train ... and who can blame them? Re: And more cancellations .... - 62/157 Written by Sion Bretton on Monday, 5th December 2005 Train was cancelled again tonight from Chippenham 17.59 Re: And more cancellations .... - 62/161 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Tuesday, 6th December 2005 ??? I was going to automatically monitor the live train site to see what they say about every train five minutes before it leaves (since I've not got any statistics for our individual line on cancellations) but it's got a file there that tells me that automated "spider" programs are unwelcome. The line manager tells us (most recently at the West Wilts user group meeting at Melksham Town Hall in November) that we suffer no more that the other lines in terms of cancellations. Re: And more cancellations .... - 62/164 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Wednesday, 7th December 2005 Perhaps the 17:02 didn't count as a cancellation then ... [i]The Melksham line was shut for planned engineering work, thus ...... 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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