An addition to our FAQ

Here are two questions which have been looked at in some considerable depth, and which are answered all through this site. But we may not have publicised them and the answers very heavily in the very recent past.  We are seeing a surge in these questions being asked, probably because some of the official, standard letters being sent out at the moment suggest rather naughtily that the work has not been done.

Who would use the service?

We have identified twelve major passenger flows, and a very considerable number of other less major ones.

Past useage figures come from our own observation, DfT and ORR figures, Wiltshire Council and First Great Western.  Further work and data by the Department for Transport, First Great Western, ourselves, and Wiltshire Council, including surveys.  Background from Census and Regional Spatial Strategy planning. Jacobs, Park report, GWEnterprises reports and others.

There IS a need to keep this data current - indeed, the main reason the previous service was lost was data that's 7 years old and an assumption of 0.8% growth when between 10% and 35% was being achieved, year on year.  On our current pledge campaign, we ask people about journeys they make in Wiltshire and in the first two weeks we have had purely people who have signed up 'declare' 62,000 journeys. Realistically, only a proportion of those would be TransWilts / Train - but then the proportion of people signing up to any pledge / joining any user group is tiny - especially one that's online only.

In May 2008, Wiltshire County Council promised they would do a further study (we do question the need for yet another study!) but to some specific standards now laid down by the Department for Transport.  This study has been budgetted for the coming financial year, with a view to any necessary county financing being considered for the following financial year. We question the timescale, and also the cost of this work; when asked, a council officer avoided the question but indicated that the cost of the study would come fairly close to the they were being asked for support in the first year.  Seeing that Wiltshire Council is able to find money to subsidise bus services in a matter of weeks (current case - route 237?), we question whether this study cycle might be being used as an excuse / delaying tactic for pressing a road-centric agenda.

How would it be financed?

Projections (and we keep those projections on the conservative side) of passenger numbers show a shortfall of income over expenditure in the first year of operation of around 200,000 pounds, with that figure decreasing as the traffic levels increase.

The local transport authority (Wiltshire Council) budgets some 8 million pounds per annum for public transport subsidy, and most other parties believe that they should contribute an element towards the cost, to give them a degree of 'ownership' of the service and to show a support and a committment.  Similar things have been done in the South West in Bristol, Devon, Cornwall, Hampshire, etc.   Once some ownership is taken, matching funding is available from other sources - for example the Dft and FGW (who would gain the fares from onward rail journeys, for example, which are not included in the sum).

Two other options may be available / could help. Firstly, the current system for attributing fares to train operators on lines on which two operators run (ORCATS) biases railway operation in favour of running near-empty trains on lines already served by someone else.  All the major TOCs in our area use this mechanism within their areas. If the system were to change to something that really paid for passengers carried, it would provide a significant incentive (60000 pound per annum worth) to FGW to serve the TransWilts with a service such as the one proposed, and if the system did not change, it provides an incentive to South West trains to run up to Swindon.  Secondly, fares on the line are actually very low (compared to the rest of the FGW area) and a 20% increase in real terms would not lead to any significant loss of traffic, but would considerably reduce the financial shortfall in year one.

One of the big fears of an organsition such as a council taking on the subsidising of a service such as this one is the long term committement that could be involved.   The recent announcement by the Department for Transport that they will take on such a committment once a service has been established and proven is welcome, as it allays this fear.  However, the service needs to be started quickly (in railway terms), and the scheme applied for, to avoid the boat being missed.

please feel free to get in touch with any member of our team if you would like further detail on the above.

See http://www.transwilts.org.uk for the rest of the case and visit http://www.transwilts.org.uk/pledge.html to add your support