A meeting of the group has popped up for 18th May, for Westbury. I am checking back on details (time and guest charge) and will add it here if the answers are appropriate

Chris - I suspect you have met at least one of their patrons with Railfuture.

Certainly it's been a month of "no news is good news" with the forum noticeably quieter than usual - and I put that down in part to improved reliability right across the patch ... and in part down to us getting a bit tired with the industrial action topic which has become a bit of a "here we go again" after 2 years.   And, yes, I am aware that forums like ours have had a bit bite taken out of them by social media - especially those that have formats that make Noah's Ark look modern.

always reminds me of http://www.passenger.chat/19455

from https://www.canveyisland.org/arts-2/literature/magazines/essex-countryside/the-first-essex-monorail

Parallel to Swindon to Oxford this autumn?

I see them pictured at what looks like Waterloo, and read at RMWeb



As a Bullied design,  and with prior knowledge of their operation from Waterloo, I started this thread in the "South Western Services" section of the forum and I would hazard a speculation that's where they spent the majority of the time they were tavern cars.  How things change ... I don't think there's any on-train catering left from Waterloo is there, and no longer any direct train beyond Exeter or Westbury either?

Totally agreed!!

But how do you make the message clear [not confusing] in a very complex situation, and how do you avoid the messaging being misleading?   That's very much an issue I have had with some of the campaigning I have done over the years;  the solution I came up with was to present real data and examples but to chose ones that were not extreme and biased cases, so that if people started to look into them they would not be laughed at - for example I would not have added in / included a table of taxi fares from London's airports to the centre. 

The Facebook comments have not been kind to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s advert, picking on unreliability of the service as perhaps their top reason not to use rail; whilst they are correct in highlighting reliability as a problem, they do gloss over airline and road delays.  The rail industry's delay figures do not help their case - once again many stats feel biased.   I want to return from Portsmouth on the evening of 8th May - last train, 19:23 train, 21:31 in Melksham. I could book that - however, I know there's a near-certainty of it being removed from the timetable due to industrial action. So I can read the timetable, buy a ticket, and not have a train ... with it not showing up in the stats, nor the provider having any alternative arrangements.

I remembered this thread touched on through services in the North East when I saw this news from The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)


or am I getting confuse with this daily service

07:08 Middlesbrough
07:15 Thornaby
08:13 York
10:20 Kings Cross

15:27 Kings Cross
17:21 York
18:08 Thornaby
18:18 Middlesbrough

I could have sworn we had a thread that mentioned going to the "Three Plovers" or "The Green Man" after work in London ... reminded here on Facebook about them.


Is on-train catering in a dedicated social environment something of the past, or is there scope for a return of the "Lord Nelson", "The King's Arms", "The Smoking Dog", the "Liz Truss", the "Engine and Tender" or "The Office"?

I am in total agreement with promoting the use of train rather than plane for domestic journeys.   However, advertising that skews a complex but good story to the extent that the figures quoted or misleading can do more harm that good in my view.   I picked this up from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s Facebook feed with reference to a Rail Delivery Group report.


Oh dear - the assumption that people want to go city centre to city centre is inaccurate, but convenient if producing a comparison that's shows a train as the best way.  And the provision of a table of taxi / minicab costs seems odd and potentially biasing.   If I were travelling - say - from Central London to the centre of Glasgow and flying the journey, I suspect I would never the less use local public transport out to Heathrow or Gatwick rather then hiring a [mini]cab.

Facebook thread at:
https://www.facebook.com/gwruk/posts/pfbid0fyT1hdKPRw8X6R6sGEXiTee8VgkFef1y53aXKfHXXUhJVu6mNLXeCQXzYaNinkyvl

Referenced report at:
https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/clearingtheair

Ditto.

On Wednesday, 22nd May 2024, Paddy Bradley, the recently appointed chair of the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership, will address members and guests of the West Wiltshire Rail Users Group.  Coffee available from 19:00, and Paddy will be filling us in from 19:30.  There will also be a brief general rail news update for the area, and an opportunity to network and ask questions. Public very welcome - we (West Wiltshire Rail Users Group) ask you for £2 as a contribution towards our costs as we are an indepedent group funded purely by our members, or you could join on the night for £8 a year (£10 for family).

The event takes place at the Bethesda Church Hall, which is about 100 yards from Trowbridge Station, and will conclude in time for people who are headed home by train to catch their services:
21:18 to Cardiff Central via Bradford-on-Avon, Bath and Bristol
21:22 to Swindon via Melksham and Chippenham (connection to Paddington)
21:31 to Weymouth via Westbury (connection to Plymouth) and Frome
21:52 for intermediate stations to Bristol including Avoncliff
21:58 to Portsmouth Harbour via Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury

Since the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership was formed some 15 years ago, to help promote use of the rail line from Swindon via Chippenham to Melksham and Trowbridge to Westbury, services and use have been transformed out of all recognition.  From around 10 passengers a day using Melksham station, served only by this line, nunbers have risen to over 200 passengers on an average day, and that's only a part of the story with the same trains also providing a link in just 19 minutes between Wiltshire's largest towns of Chippenham and Trowbridge.  The 20 fold passenger increase has been made possible by a four fold increase in the number of services, and the doubling of the length of the trains which has ensured that there is room on the trains for the passengers.

A success story, yes, which has been helped along by that partnership between the community and the rail indusrty with local and national goverment playing a crucial role too. But this is a story of a project that's still under way. The numbers look impressive as presented above, but the train service at just 9 a day is still thin, and many people tell me that they don't use it because of the inconvenience of the long gaps.  Analysis including comparisons with other similar services and towns in England suggests that an increase to an hourly "clockface" service in which the train leaves at the same time in every hour - that's 16 or 17 services a day - would increase passenger journey numbers to at least 700 per day (using the to / from Melksham measure), and that the quarter of a million annual journeys now made on the line would become more like a million each year.

TransWilts has over the years widened its portfolio - the best description I would apply is that they look to journeys within, to, from, and though Wiltshire, and a great deal of useful activity / excellent work has taken place both within communities and at a strategic level, helping lay a grounding for a positive future with both existing services and additional ones, perhaps serving new stations in the county and destinations beyond.

It's a little rusty, but there is a "who are we - the people behind firstgreatwesten.info" thread at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/1780 which introduces all the administrators. There is no secret as to who we are.  I'm also the webmaster / technical lead and you can find out all (or, rather, probably more than you want to know) about me - current blog at http://grahamellis.uk/blog.html and it includes a picture of me - two at present in fact, with a selfie within a recent blog. Lots more pictures at http://grahamellis.uk/pictures.html

All on-topic posts are welcome.  I suggested that you might like to include a link to the TV show you're telling us about as that would help other members find it quickly; that's especially the case on local news which is available for just a day. Others have "liked" my post and followed up to indicate that they too would find it useful.  I'm sorry if you see my input as bullying - it's the last thing I intend, but sometimes suggestions you may not agree with can come across a bit forceful in the written word.

Thank you for the invite to call - I am not about to do so in the middle of the night; you are most likley asleep and also having raised your concerns on the public forum, I suspect that others will want to read my response. Should you wish to call me (between 07:00 and 19:00 please!), my numbers are at http://grahamellis.uk/contact.html

I'm suspecting it's within https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ylys - but, please, Infoman - on these shows that are only available for 24 hours especially could you please post the URL with the headline - that way we have longer to see what you are recommending us to see - thanks!