« February 2006 | Main | April 2006 »
March 31, 2006
Someone can't wait!
Even before the Wessex Trains franchise expires tonight, I see that someone has replaced the posters at the station with First posters and painted over the "Wessex Trains" logo on the station signs ...
Gone is the local information showing the way to the town, gone is the sign pointing to Swindon one way and Westbury the other, and gone is the sign in the waiting shelter that was used by the West Wilts Rail user's group - at least the top of it has been removed so that notices can't be posted there any longer.
We now have a poster telling us about engineering works throughout the Great Western area for the next month (good) and another telling us of the replacement of the last Saturday and lunchtime Sunday trains by buses for the whole of April. Bad news, but at least we're told.
Posted by gje at 06:19 PM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2006
Real time train monitoring
Oops - my real time train monitoring script - the program I've been using to see how the trains have been doing on punctuality and reliability - didn't notice when the clocks went forward. There's a bit of a glitch in what's shown for Monday and Tuesday of this week ...
Please read blanks and "no report"s as "I don't know".
The cancellation shown would be genuine, and that probably means that the up run to Swindon was cancelled too - giving at best a 90% record for the two days. I do wonder if Wessex is going out with a bang or a whimper.
Posted by gje at 12:21 AM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2006
The Waiting Game
More than 3000 timetable inputs were received by 8th March, and First are working on them / consulting with other parties to get this stage completed by 27th April. Pressure on politicians still useful.
There's a circophany (Oops - spelling) of protest against some of the much more major cuts such as 8 trains gone daily on the Looe branch, and 5 x longer trains from Bedwyn to London cut - and there seems to be much more press interest in these bigger issues. Yes - they ARE important, but remaining services on those lines mean that victims of the proposed withdrawls would "only" have an hour or two to wait (maximum chance at Bedwyn - 48 minutes) whereas anyone planning to catch - say - the 09:12 from Melksham would have to wait until half past six in the evening.
I'm hoping that a strong case and a lot of inputs to the consultations from here mean that we will get an improvement rather than an excuse or an ignoring of our legitimate gripes / concerns - perhaps all the other bigger cost cases might even encourage First / DfT to let our case go through. But alhough I'm an optimist, I'm not counting on anything and I look also at "plan b".
Posted by gje at 07:12 AM | Comments (2)
March 22, 2006
Service failure looses more customers
I'm training a load of London folks this week; previous groups from the same company have come by train from London and we've picked them up at Melksham station. But this week, they've driven. Why's that?
"Our colleagues warned us that the service was unreliable" they said. We put that previous group on the 17:02, to connect with the 17:25 onward from Chippenham to London - about 30 people left Melksham on that train, a couple of minutes late. But then it got held up for a quarter of an hour at Thingley before joining the main line .... and our customers had no options to wait while their onward train was let through ahead.
The Wessex train crew on the 17:02 were very apologetic, very much trying to help people plan their onward journeys (I happened to be travelling too, going West from Chippenham), but there was just a bleak platform and no customer care staff to look after people at Chippenham on a draughty platorm and a crammed waiting room. In all honesty, I can't blame our customers but all it needs is a bit of joined up activity.
Should it be better when one company runs both services? Well - it should but I have my doubts; First have already said there can be no instant cure for some of the ills and problems and I do understand this. I do wonder, though, at their proud statement that eveyone will have smart new uniforms on April Fool's day and wonder if their priorities are quite right.
My priority would be to have a train service that ran, and connected rather than beautiful stations and well turned out staff ... with no trains from before 8 in the morning to after 6 at night.
Posted by gje at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2006
Not just the TransWilts and Melksham ...
"Fewer carriages on trains across the West Country will mean uncomfortable journeys for many people this summer. Other services will be withdrawn altogether.
DOZENS of train carriages used on rural lines are to be taken out of service by Britain’s biggest train company to save money ....."
Posted by gje at 06:33 AM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2006
On supporting other campaigns ...
With limited resources, and an immediate threat of loosing ALL SIX trains that currently call at Melksham (a town of some 24,000 people) between 07:45 and 18:15, my site has always and must continue to concentrate on making "powers that be" see sense on that subject.
I wish I had the time to support other campaigns much more actively, and I'm always delighed when we can all take advantage of sharing and pooling information. I'm also painfully aware than any little victories in the present round - be they Melksham, Bedwyn or the early train from Gunnislake - can come up for review again in the very near future under "Beeching 2" and could turn out to be no more than a year or two's reprive before a much more major axe falls in the area.
Posted by gje at 06:34 AM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2006
New pages and information
A spray of tiny points ...
1. Draft WEEKEND timetable is summarised here
2. Meeting at Bedwyn with our MP - summary of constituency stations effected here
3. Political inputs still mey be effective - people to write to page has been added
And I need something of a break from all these meetings.
Posted by gje at 06:49 PM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2006
Ploughing back OUR money, not theirs.
I was watching "why the trains don't work" on Channel 4 at 04:55 this morning (don't ask!), and noted Alastair Darling talking about how goverment isn't starving money from the trains - quoting as an example of investment - in the same sentence - 200 million to be spent on the new Great Western franchise.
I thought that 200 million was the passengers money, being invested by First group. Raised by previous business activities and fares. Did you realise that in the 10 years since privatisation, some fares out of Paddington have risen by 90%, compared to a rise of 30% if the rises were inflation based alone?
Posted by gje at 07:43 AM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2006
A whole pile of responses
I have in my hand ... a grain of sand.
Is it a pile of sand? No - it's just a GRAIN of sand. One grain can't make a pile.
Let's add a second grain. Is that a pile? Clearly not. And how about with a third grain? It's very hard to draw the line, and it's very hard to say "THAT is a pile but THAT wasn't" at any time you add a grain.
Seven responses to a government consultation concerning the withdrawal of train services from Swindon to Southampton, and the knock on effect on Melksham in particular which loses most of its trains, can't be considered to be a significant pile but then it didn't make the grade because meny of us weren't even aware that the consultation was happening.
Now, with just a little bit of local publicity, there's been many more responses to First Group's consultation on the detail of the plans - I know personally of around 40 people who have responded in the last 48 hours. THAT is, by any sensible measure, is much more significant. And I suspect it's just the tip of the iceberg, for why should people tell me that they're responding?
Many, many thanks to everyone who's heeded the calls from me, from other active groups, and from First for inputs to the current timetabling exercise. I don't know whether it will lead to any better timetable but it very well might, and I'm sure it won't lead to a backward step from the draft!
Photo - public information from National Institute of Standards and Technology
Posted by gje at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)
Meetings and Consultation Responses
A big rush over the last few days! I went to Taunton on Sunday and listened to Alison Forster, the MD of First Great Western talk, and then to Warminster on Monday to listen to Julian Crow, operations manager for the West of England. And that gave me 24 hours to get in my consultation response. I've also put up an input form through which you still have a few hours to express your view (or email tt06@firstgroup.com directly).
It seems that there are quite good chances of changing train schedules to suit needs - especially away from Bristol, London, Reading and other major hubs. Some chance of getting extra stops added to services - and that's easier at places like Dilton Marsh were it would add just a minute or two onto the schedule that at Westbury where it would add 7 minutes to a main line express. Prospects of extra trains? Where the stock is there (e.g. early morning, Gunnislake) there is a good chance. Where we're told that extra stock would be needed - e.g. Melksham - it's a much tougher prospect but in my view it's live enough to keep telling 'em. In fact, I think Alison and Julian are almost willing us to put on an unbearable pressure ... to their consultantion, to DfT, to MPs, etc!
Posted by gje at 06:56 AM | Comments (0)
March 05, 2006
INPUTS NEEDED by 8th March
I visited Taunton yesterday - a very full room at the SWTUPF meeting (details to follow) with folks from all over the South West listening to Alison Forster, MD of First Great Western.
Alison highly recommends that everyone gets input in on the draft timetable by 8th March and I back her up in the recommendation. They have received 2000 inputs so far and will categorise / consider all of them.
I sense that there's an excellent change of additional stops being recommended at places like Dean and Ivybridge where trains are passing through anyway. There's a very good chance that sensible, practical suggestions within the current proposed service level could be achieved elsewhere - for example that the proposed 2nd train through Melksham could be adjusted. I would rate the battle to have a suitable level of service through Melksham as being a tougher nut to crack, but - folks - don't rule it out.
Please PLEASE have a look at the form here that lets you input from our site direct to the timetabling folks. I've provided a number of suggestions you might like to endorse, or you can make your own.
Thanks
Graham
Posted by gje at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)