Save the Melksham Train
Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
FGW Timetabling Errors - 781/2266
Written by streety7 on Friday, 8th December 2006

After taking over 4 months to publish their final December 2006 timetable, FGW have just released a 7-page PDF file stating all sorts of weird and wonderful alterations to their train times booklets...

The ones which stick out to me:

"Delete Fishguard Harbour boat symbol on arrivals line"
"Incorrect page inserted. Monday to Friday times shown rather than Sundays from 1 April 2007"
"Camborne misspelt in station bank"
"Sun until 28 Jan 2007, 1245 Gunnislake to Plymouth add GW to operator" (What they forgot they were operating it?)
"Sun 2308x and 2354x at Exton move one column to the right"
"Add note CE to read The Cathedrals Express"
"Sun from 1 April 2007 add 1st class symbol to all departures from London Paddington at 45 minutes past the hour"
"Saturdays 1551 Trowbridge to Westbury. Delete this train"

How can they make so many mistakes, and not realise them until after the booklets are published?

A few points that actually matter to our section though...
"Mondays to Fridays 1917 Trowbridge to Westbury starts from Cheltenham Spa"
"Mondays to Fridays 0702 Westbury to Trowbridge terminates at Cheltenham Spa"
"Saturdays 0902 Westbury to Trowbridge terminates at Swindon"
They've actually been bothered to show that these trains don't just run between Trowbridge & Westbury anymore...

Link --> [url]http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Documents/Custom/Errata%20slip%20071206%20(Basic).pdf[/url]

Re: FGW Timetabling Errors - 781/2274
Written by Lee on Saturday, 9th December 2006

It would also appear that we have an apology from Glenda Lamont for disruption across the FGW network (link below.)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Documents/Custom/Customer%20services/On%20Board%20letter%208%20Dec.pdf

Re: FGW Timetabling Errors - 781/2281
Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Saturday, 9th December 2006

I was concerned to note in some of the drafts that the 06:19 from Swindon to Chippenham and the 18:42 from Swindon to Chippenham, both of which go on to Westbury, didn't appear at all in the main London to Bristol book which I thought was supposed to include the complete service between these two stations.

I wrote a note to First's customer service about this, and that was a while back, but did not receive a reply.

 
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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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