Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Campaign for Better Transport - "Make Walk-on Fares Affordable" - 7845/12634 Written by Lee on Thursday, 3rd July 2008
Quote from the link below : http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/campaigns/public_transport/rail/blog
[quote="Cat Hobbs (Campaign for Better Transport)"]I've been travelling around the country with Mystic Peg, our fortune teller, and I've heard again and again that people need a walk-on railway.
In Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Norwich and elsewhere, people have been telling us that the Government must make it affordable to turn up at the station and go, without booking in advance.
Even the Department for Transport's Citizen's Panel report said that fares are too expensive, and that it needs to be cheaper to take public transport than to make the same journey by car.
Yet our research shows that it is almost five times more expensive to travel if you buy your ticket on the day, rather than booking several weeks ahead.
If we don't do something, the problem of expensive walk-on fares could get worse. The Government plans to halve its investment in the rail network from
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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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