I was browsing through the Wilsthire Council Website ... with the Local Transport Plan 3 consultation underway at present, with the new Unitary authority having just taken over, and being about halfway the current 5 year (LTP2) period, I felt it was a good time to have a look and see how they were getting on against their aspirations. There's a lot about bus, and only very little about rail, in the public transport section, but here goes.

From Appendix 4 (Public Transport) of Local Transport Plan 2

2.1 To ensure the right conditions prevail to raise productivity through  innovation and sustainable development enabling increased investment  in jobs and services to improve quality of life. Specific geographic  priorities; Swindon and the city of Salisbury; priority market towns;  deprived wards; communities heavily influenced by the MoD; Salisbury  Research Triangle; A36, A303 and A350; strategic rail routes and station  provision, as well as rail routes to Swindon 

Rail Routes to Swindon have got markedly worse ... procuctivity decreased with people who previously used the railway being forced onto the road, or to dogleg via Bath, due to the December 2006 changes.

2.2 Maximising the use of existing transport infrastructure ...

The railway infrastructure is used less rather than more in my town

4.12 The Swindon - West Wiltshire - Southampton service should be developed  as it has considerable potential to help relieve local traffic and environmental  problems and to contribute to the Council's Western Wiltshire Transport Plan.

Far from being developed, the service has been REMOVED

4.13  New stations at Corsham, Wilton, Porton and Wootton Bassett remain part of the  long term strategy, although it is recognised that pursuing these is unlikely to be  productive until there are changes in the national rail funding situation. On the  other hand, improvements to existing stations (particularly to facilitate interchange  between rail and road transport) will be considered for inclusion in the 5-year  programme. 

There have been some improvements.   But that's patchy - at Melksham, a town crying out for improved facilities, the only improvements have been the replacement of a few signs.

6.1 Improving access to stations;  promotion, including employer travel  plans; continuing development of  town centres to provide residential  and employment use and enhance  attractiveness of towns; engagement  with DfT and rail industry to ensure  service continuity and incremental  capacity improvements.

Capacity has not been improved - it has ben reduced

6.15 More frequent services between Swindon, Melksham, Trowbridge and  Southampton. 

Far from increasing the service, it has been withdrawn

A The Council will use the following guidelines to ensure value for money: The Council will critically review the justification for services where the subsidy  per passenger trip exceeds the following:  £1.25 per passenger trip for school services under priorities H4 or M3  above; £2.30 per passenger trip for urban local services; 3.50 per passenger trip for all other services.

A subsidy of 0.80 per passenger trip would ensure positive movement on the other steps of the plan ... and that's even better value because the average distance of a trip by rail is much higher that the average distance of a trip by road. But nothing has been done except talk and write reports

If this was a half term school report, it wouldn't just say "could do better". It would say "this pupil has shown a complete disregard for the objectives that were set him at the start of the course ..."