Graham - indeed, one can see where he got all his useless ideas from!
That is your opinion, which you are free to express here, ChrisB. I [c/sh]ould not comment however ...
The projects mentioned all seem to me to be longer term aspirations. Most of them are very, very long shots with a good justification they could happen in the very very long term. There have been "flying elephants" that have landed before - you never know. But I do net see how the benefits will outweigh or even come close to the costs and negatives in a lot of the cases under current rules and on their list
Before (m)any of those listed, improvements we might expect to see (not a full list and vaguely in the Westbury sphere):
Capacity enhancement, Westbury station and Westbury to Chippenham
Capaciry enhancement, Castle Cary to Dorchester
Capaciry enhancement, Yeovil to Exeter
Electrification, Chippenham to Bristol Temple Meads and to Quarries
Electrification, Newbury to Taunton and Bristol Temple Meads to Bromsgrove
Saltford, Wilton Station and Stonehouse (London Road) stations
Re-opening to daily service Taunton to Minehead
Re-opening Barnstaple to Bideford
Re-opening Okehampton to Tavistock and Bere Alston
I help set up meeting in West Wilts too, and typically plan their start time to suite train arrivals. Here is a table of arrivals for lunch a for the meeting at 2 p.m.
Arrivals (for 13:00 and for 14:00) from:
12:01 and 13:01 Cardiff, Bristol and Bath
11:52 and 13:55 London Paddington
10:53 London Waterloo
12:47 Exeter and Taunton
11:48 and 13:55 Swindon
11:07 and 13:03 Weymouth
12:12 and 13:14 Southmapton and Salisbury
Personally, I would have plumped for a 14:30 meeting start to suite the train from Cardiff (14:01), Portsmouth (14:14), Swindon (13:55), and Paddington (13:55) - you're never going to get all of them good at Westbury, arrivals from the routes via Castle Cary are poor.
