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September 29, 2007
Front page update
Briefest of notes today - to let you know that I've updated the front page of the site; that's been long overdue.
Off to Travel Watch South West, in Taunton, in about an hour. A meeting of individual representatives of local travel and transport groups from Swindon to Penzance - a chance to network and hear how others are doing. Also to listen to some of the movers and shakers in the rail and bus industry.
Although it feels at times that the Train Operating Companies, the Department for Transport, and the County Council are on the opposite side of the fence to campaigners, that's really NOT the case. Almosty everyone DOES have the interests of the users and potential users at heart - "without passengers, we couldn't pay our shareholders" was a comment I heard recently. I look forward to meeting old friends right across the board in a few hours time.
Posted by gje at 06:59 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2007
Frustrated but not depairing
I fear that I've made a number of negative posts recently to various forums; please put some elements of that down to frustration rather than despair.
It's frustrating to be told that we "must be patient" and "things don't happen overnight". I agree - but we have been patient for over 2 years - the seeds of the campaign for an ongoing appropriate TransWilts train service started in the Spring of 2005, and here we are now, some 27 months later, being told not to be hasty in our expectations.
It's frustrating to see timetable proposals made and a lot of good work done, but all come to no weekday improvement at all, and all we left with is the carcass to pick over when it's thrown to us (with bits deleted!) under the Freedom of Information act. People need train services to travel on; they cannot travel on stillborn proposals.
And it's frustrating to see, still, a minority of key players still manipulating words and statistics rather than looking at a less biased view of the picture as a whole. Just today, I've come across one person comparing trains back to 1994 and claiming credit that there's been no grerat loss of number of services since then ... when in the same period actual passenger number have risen 50%. And another person trying to discount Melksham ticket sales by 2/3 because of the number of tickets sold to people travelling from Trowbridge rather than Melksham - except she was trying to discount actual on-train surveys. I hope both of these ladies are ashamed of themselves. But I would love to leave let all those bygones by bygones, and let us all pull together, for a sensible solution.
First Great Western, the Department for Transport, and Wiltshire County Council all employ some very impressive personel, at many levels across each organisation. I'm not going to embarrass any individuals here, but I do feel that it's all too rare that I write in praise and admiration of these people, even if (at times) I might not agree with the message they have to give.
I have been reading a comment or three about the "More Train Less Strain" campaign, and comparisons to our forum(s). Different railway line, different metrics, and I suspect different objectives and methods. We have certainly not advocated some of their approaches, but then we have participated in some activities and groupings where they have been conspicuous by their absence. So, once again looking to cut the negarive, may I look forward.
Whilst "The system" may or may not be broken, we've not chosen as our battle ground a desire to alter the system - indeed arguments as to whether or not it is broken are something of a distraction. And something people will argue over. Our objective is to regain and retain an appropriate train service across Wiltshire, linking the five largest population centres of Swindon, Salisbury, Chippenham, Trowbridge and Melksham. And we're delighted to add in the significant towns of Westbury and Warminster, Frome which is just as large and logically linked in with transport flows, and Dilton Marsh where you can stand on what was an isolated station platform a few years ago and see the residential housing come marking ever closer month by month.
Unlike the political case and some other campaigns, our enjoys near-universal support. It's such a no-brainer once you start getting into the wider case that the "TransWilts" becomes a natural service to provide - as suggested by Parkman in 2000, Jacobs in 2004 and - we trust - provided by Haines, de Phililipe, Kelly and team in 2008. But we need to work with these people's teams in order to pull around the last few doubting Thomases and Rosies, to help provide data for the best solid case to ensure that it won't fall again at the last fence, and to ensure that the train stays on the track once it's been placed there.
Posted by gje at 07:10 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2007
FSB - North and West Wilts Commitee - Federation of Small Businesses
I have been a reasonably active member of the local section of the Federation of Small Businesses - a good opportunity for local networking - and have been on their Branch Commitee for the last year. However, the organisation has been severely dragged away from where I think it should be at the local level in the last few months - and that's not a local but a national move. Our branch chairman has been dragged through the mud, and words like "Kangeroo Court" have been bandied about but cannot be used officially as everything is happening behind closed doors. Rather odd - you would have thought that the FSB board (or whatever it is) would want vindication in th eeyes of its member if it was acting in their interest. As it is, their secrecy makes them look like an old boy's club - a clique - who really aren't keen on new ideas. Anyway - I won't be standing for the commitee again for next year - I don't have the time to waste.
Reproduced below is my letter informing our branch chairman of my decision and reasons. All pretty personal and boring from my side, really, but the letter is out there in the public domain if you would like to read it. And there is a more formal item here too.
Dear Marion,
I am writing to confirm my decision not to re-offer myself for election to the North and West Wiltshire Branch Committee of the Federation of Small Businesses at the upcoming Annual General Meeting, and to offer you some explanation of the background. In the spirit of openness, please feel free to copy this letter to other parties as you feel fit.
The FSB is marketed as a member-led organisation, looking to provide benefits such as centralised services and local and regional networking opportunities to those members, with these local and regional activities tailored by regional and branch committees to suit the needs of their own locales. That used to work well - looking back earlier in the year, I note a networking event held in West Wiltshire, a multicultural event in Swindon, and an Olympic Event also in Swindon which were all of benefit to many members, including my own small business. All three that I mention were organised by the local branch or region, and I was happy to provide a small element of help with each.
In the last three or four months, things have changed. The FSB's higher echelons have disregarded the member's wishes and those of the committees they have elected by suspending, mid year, officers from various roles - right up to suspending the whole of the regional committee. The operation of the region is now in the hands of an executive with a Blackpool (HQ) phone number, and a paid employee who appears to be working outside of local direction (and complaining that there is only one of her with limited time). And the events - the lifeblood of the local organisation - are being cancelled left, right and centre as the HQ person and the Regional Officer struggle to cope and leave the ship with the rudder tied up with a rope.
Members have not been informed, to my knowedge, of exactly what is going on and why. I find this amazing for a "Member Led Organisation". Only yesterday, I received a reply to a request I had made for some information regarding a membership survey that appeared out of the blue, instructing me that the reply was for my eyes only - private and confidential - and it could be illegal for me to pass a copy on to anyone. The FSB - at least in this part of the country - is no longer a member-led organisation; it appears to be lead by a Junta, with decisions taken by their civil servants and shrouded in secrecy which is hiding goodness knows what. A comment that suspensions were "until the enquiry had been completed" seem to have been hollow promises too. As I understand it, enquiries completed last month some time, with a concluding vote taken on 1st September, some 10 days ago. But normal service has not been restored.
Even before the problems described in this letter, the FSB's organisation was anachronistic. It saddened me to see active business owners scrambling around to fill in paperwork in quadruplicate, and to deal with an overbearing central control, where trivial tasks had to be sent to Blackpool at great expense to members. And little use is made of modern technology; a survey sent out just last week was still "paper only" and we were invited to post or fax it back. That's pretty impractical for the modern small business man, out (as I was last week) meeting customers in the Netherlands and working from a mobile phone and laptop computer.
I'm busy, and I don't have the time to fight the system, the secrecy and untruths that I describe above. I have a huge admiration for what you do (when you're allowed and informed), Marion, but I can no longer serve on local committees as they now operate. Truth be known, I would find it hard to sign the full confidentially agreement as I would be sorely tempted to take on the role of a whistleblower, and as such I fear I would be more of a liability than an assistance to the branch and region.
But it has been a very educational year ;-)
Graham
Graham Ellis
Well House Consultants, 404 The Spa, Melksham, Wilts
http://www.wellho.net graham@wellho.net
0800 043 8225 (freephone) or +44 (0) 1225 708225 (phone)
+44 (0) 1225 707126 (fax)
Posted by gje at 07:06 AM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2007
How to fill platforms, and railway company coffers too!
Give us the trains .... and we'll turn this:
into this:
Two West Wiltshire stations, each serving towns with a population of between 20 and 30 thousand. The biggest difference? One has two trains a DAY each way, and the other has two trains an HOUR each way.
The road network of West Wiltshire is not suitable for longer distance journeys between North and South - and only a huge investment would improve this. What's the point im making that huge investment when there's a perfectly good railway corridor that's underutilised and that people WOULD use.
Posted by gje at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)