Save the Melksham Train
Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Murrison Disappointed By Harris Response To Plea For Better Services - 7463/12148
Written by Lee on Tuesday, 6th May 2008

Westbury MP Dr Andrew Murrison says he is disappointed by the response of the Rail Minister Tom Harris to his plea for better Bristol-Waterloo services (link below.)
http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/latestheadlines/display.var.2236614.0.mp_upset_by_train_plea_response.php

In his letter, the minister commits to the current level of service but seemed lukewarm on the prospects of the more frequent service that Mr Murrison is pressing for.

Mr Harris said in his letter:

[quote="Tom Harris"]"Given the need to deliver the hourly Exeter service from December 2009 and the continued need to balance this with provision of sufficient capacity for Yeovil/Salisbury from London flows in the am and pm peaks, the ability to provide any extra commercial services from Waterloo to Bristol via Salisbury and Westbury may be quite limited."[/quote]

Mr Murrison said:

[quote="Andrew Murrison"]"It seems that any improvement in the service will be dependent on commercial viability and competing network priorities.

"Ministers and Network Rail must do more to increase capacity without which it seems unlikely that we will see much improvement on the direct service via Salisbury or the Trans-Wilts' route."[/quote]

 
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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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