Campaigning

Graham Ellis sharing years of experience as a thought on each day
Coffee Shop Home PageAbout the Coffee ShopAcronymsStation ComparatorCalendarNew TopicsPopular TopicsMTUGCoffee Shop Forum
Campaigning Home PageCampaigning - list of daily tipsCampaigning - today's tip
Great Western RailwayCross Country TrainsChiltern RailwaysSouth Western RailwayTransport for WalesTransport for London

Set a threshold

This campaign tip (no. 7) was published on Monday, 7th January 2019
• If you are campaigning for "100" and get offered "30", should you take it?
• How about if you're offered 10, or 75?
• What if you're looking for 100 apples but are offered 90 pears?

We campaigned for a train service each way every 2 hours - as an appropriate service. That's 9 or 10 trains each way per day. Around 2010, various ideas were suggested about taking up our 2 trains each way per day to 3, 4 or 5 with the extra train running off peak or shoulder peak when resource was available. In our view, that was very close indeed to a threshold, but below it. We had severe concerns that without a peak service back from Swindon to Westbury, we only had half a solution and would have had a hard sell - we might indeed have been set up to fail

As it is / was from 2013 - we got an extra six trains, making eight each way in total. A gap from 07:50 to 10:04 northbound at Melksham, and from 06:12 to 08:53 and again from 15:12 to 17:36 back from Swindon could all do with being plugged, and we need an evening service - but we are over the threshold and have a service which whilst it remains poor at least works for significant flows.

Illustration - It's lovely to spend a summer Sunday in Weymouth - but just an extra train on Sundays to allow such trips would have been way below our threshold. We would like the trip to be practical on Monday to Friday too, but that was not worth holding out for; we were offered a baby and realistically we could do without the bathwater
Discussion via Coffee Shop forum

Contact details

These pages are written by Graham Ellis of Melksham, Wiltshire. Overlapping a life in IT and IT training, with running a hotel and campaigning for improved public transport, Graham has never been quiet - though he's starting to wind down gently now. He no longer takes overnight guests and has stepped doen from the "Community Rail Officer" role which he accidentally aquired. So he now has more time to write pages such as these and to travel in the UK. He'll be delighted to speak with your group or take a look through your case or camapaign, but be alerted that his time is not limitless even now, and he still has to keep the wolf from the door.

Postal: 48, Spa Road, Melksham, Wiltshire, SN12 7NY
Phonal: 01225 708225
Emailal: graham -at- wellho.net
Or reach me on the Coffee Shop Forum (User Grahame) facilities


What a difference a campaign makes!

It probably wouldn't have happened without a strong community campaign with which I have been involved. Most days through 2019 I'll be sharing a thought, an idea, a way of working or an experience. Come back here for the links. Discussions via the Coffee Shop Forum - Graham Ellis, 31st December 2018


Popular Links


Recent forum popular topics

[*] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[*] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[*] Who needs a travel agent these days?
[*] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption elsewhere - ongoi ...
[*] CrossCountry upgrade will see 25% more rail seats
[*] Return of the BRUTE?
[*] Notification of different standards - Bedwyn and Melksham
[*] Nice work if you can get it ??
[*] ZEBRA 2 electric buses in the South-West