Save the Melksham Train
Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Rail Operator 'Forced to backtrack' over Bath to Bristol service cuts - 803/2336
Written by Graz on Monday, 11th December 2006

This article mentions Melksham , so I thought it'd be good for here!

The Bath Chronicle

RAIL OPERATOR 'FORCED TO BACKTRACK' OVER BATH TO BRISTOL SERVICE CUTS

11:15 - 11 December 2006
Government orders have forced a rail operator to lay on an extra rush hour train service between Bristol and Bath, transport campaigners have claimed.Today, a new timetable for services between London and Bath, and across Somerset and Wiltshire, comes into force.

It is the first timetable train operator First Great Western has published since taking over the west country rail franchise in April.

On Government orders the total number of services between London and Bath has been slashed, as has the number of stops at Keynsham and Oldfield Park stations.

But at the end of last week, First Great Western announced "late changes" to the new timetable - including the new service between Bristol and Bath.

David Redgewell, of campaign group Transport 2000, said: "This new service wasn't down to First Great Western.

"It has happened because of pressure from the highest possible level - the rail minister.

"The Department for Transport identified that there was a problem with the level of trains calling at places within the Bath area.

"We are hopeful that after May the minister will insist on a review of the services run in the west and will put the required amount of resources into the trains serving Freshford, Avoncliff, Trowbridge, Melksham and Bath, so we can get trains back.

"We need those back for the economy, for the tourists we depend on, and for the prosperity of the area."


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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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