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Topic: hello (Read 1858 times)
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Chris Street
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hello
« on: November 12, 2006, 10:58:20 PM » |
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Hi Save the Train team,
I have been visiting this website almost since you started the campaign, and, even though I have only been to Melksham on the train once or twice I still feel for you very strongly - I agree that the service you are being provided with from December 2006 is just of little or no use, 2 trains a day is supposed to be the centre for driving people off the roads in Melksham?
I've just been thinking why don't they just dedicate two trains to do the route each way, giving Melksham an hourly service or if thats not possible 1 train dedicated to a 2-hourly service each way, the trip takes less than an hour one way. It can't cost [i]that much[i] to dedicate 1 or maybe 2 two-carriage class 158's to the route would it? This would counter-balance the sharp rise in fares recently, wouldn't it? Wasn't the greater western franchise one to look forward to for improvements not cuts?
I saw the new timetable published the other day and the fact that FGW have not edited the 0702 arrival to Westbury of which has a turnaround time of 0 minutes is just going to make things worse, especially if it runs late from the North from Gloucester, surely at least 5 minutes later from Westbury wouldn't make a difference as the train will still have about half an hourly probably to turn around when it goes back north up to Cheltenham? At least then reliability will be improved.
I really do hope things look up in the near future, as I think you have the strongest of points because with 2 trains a day Melksham is nearly being wiped off the rail map, whereas others are complaining that an hourly service isn't enough, ok I see their point but still they should try living in Melksham where a decent non-SLC2 compliant service isn't even being offered!
I'm also liking the way that FGW have put London and Reading connections into the timetable, because I heard from here that there weren't any practical connections to London from December and the fact that there's no southbound connections to e.g. Frome or Salisbury or Southampton...
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Graham Ellis
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Re: hello
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2006, 04:03:07 AM » |
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Welcome, and many thanks for your words of support. It's been (and will continue to be) difficult to see much of a bright side in the service that's being provided which will be even more inadequate than the current one has been - frankly useless for most of my own travel needs and those of people I work with / know and we'll have no option but to use other means of transport, or not travel at all, when we need to get to / from Melksham.
An email yesterday told me that the current problems are due to the staff at Arriva Train's depot in South Wales not serving trains properly, and the trains breaking down in service. By that I mean the 30% or so cancellation rate of the 17:02 and 18:09 services. Curiously, other sources tell me "staff shortage" to operate the trains, so someone's not telling the whole truth.
Consultation inputs on the times that the two remaining trains should run evoked a strong reaction for the morning train to arrive in Swindon at around 08:30 and then return, and the evening train to arrive in Swindon at around 17:30 and then return - and yet the outcome of the procedure was timings AWAY from what was requested. Curiously, no-one has been able to offer me any positive reasoning as to why the TransWilts trains will gather extra business at the new hours compared to the timings we suggested. Costs of hiring trains and DfT orders are quoted by the operator, with loading figures of "12 per train" when we always see much, much more than that. Someone's not telling the whole truth.
The 07:02 arrival and departure in Westbury won't happen. And there's been silence on the operational practicallity of that when asked. I note that there's a train starting at Westbury at 07:05 headed for Southampton, and I suspect that the train will NOT turn around but be two different units, even though SLC2 does NOT allow these two serices to be linked. When I was told yesterday that "relaiability will naturally be improved because you're not linked to the important Stroud Valley service", I suspect that someone wasn't telling the whole truth.
So what is the truth? Perhaps it's that the DfT and First don't care about Melksham. That they're looking for an example that they can quote and say "we've been tough on driving costs down" or perhaps to clear the single track of passenger trains so they can run more freight. Or simply because the single line is so inadequate that it causes them delays to their 'more important' main line trains at both ends. But I can't belive that latter - after all, they would be admitting that they can't run a railway.
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