invite letter

I am writing to invite you to attend a meeting on the evening of Monday, 5th March to focus community support onto the "TransWilts" railway line that links Swindon, via Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge to Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.  Formal invites are going out to many organiations involved, but additionally I'm inviting current, past,and potential future users and other interested parties too - this meeting and stong support COULD MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE.

The use of train service linking these towns - including the five largest towns in Wiltshire - grew dramatically up to last December; growth rates of between 8% and 35% per annum are quoted for the five years up to that point, and a service that was very quiet five years ago had become pretty busy by last autumn.  But the service was cut back in December to just two trains a day, running at times that are inappropriate for the main traffic flows.  The reasons given are poor economic value, but arguments from various parties to the decision were based on older (so lower) usage figures, and consultant's reports that assumed a growth rate of just 0.8% per annum.

I have various indications that the service provision is now being reconsidered much more throughly and constructively, with what I believe to be a better chance than at any point previously of us securing an appropriate service to meet customer needs.  But we're still not out of the woods - we need a community push to ensure that the optimism isn't stillborn, and that a service - when provided - is well advertised and supported by the community.  With the Regional Spatial Strategy proposing a high growth rate all the way from Swindon to West Wiltshire, increasing conjestion on the A350 and other roads in the area, and strong traffic flows between the towns in the county, a two hourly service starting later this year makes sense.

The meeting will start at 19:30 (arrive earlier for coffee) at Well House Manor, 48 Spa Road, Melksham SN12 7NY on Monday, 5th March.  If you are unable to attend personally, please nominate an appropriate council member or officer to attend in your place.  You are also welcome to pass this on to other parties and invitethem to attend on a less formal basis.

So that I can plan the meeting, I WOULD like some idea of numbers - it would be much appreciatiated if you can RSVP.

I look forward to seeing you at the start of next month

This is a special meeting organised by "Save the Train".  We have been campaiging for an appropriate train service for West Wiltshire to Swindon, and from Swindon and Chippenham to Trowbridge, Warminster and Salisbury, for 18 months.

A petition to the Prime Minister, which has just closed, drew nearly 1700 signatures including 8 Members of Parliament, 5 MEPs^▸ (Member of European Parliament) and many councillors, and became the top domestic public transport petition on the PM's web site (8th out of over 400 on transportation and infrasturcture).  That's very respectable for a locally based petiton with no formal organisation that ran for just three weeks.

The petition and the wider campaign has received good press exposure - a half page in the Sunday Express, a shorter piece in the Daily Telegraph, and an article in the Metro which actually reprinted the current minimalist timetable.  An item on HTV West showed just how poor by comparison the bus alternative is from Melksham to Swindon, with me taking well over an hour to make a journey that would have taken less than 30 minutes by train, and pieces on "You and Yours" and "Westminster Hour" on Radio 4 should be noted.  And those appearances are in addition to enormous local support from newspapers and radio stations in the area.

At Westminster, Ann Snelgrove, James Gray, Michael Ancram and Andrew Murrison - that's all the MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) for the Swindon - Westbury section - stood up and spoke in favour of an appropriate service during a debate, and Robert Key and Sandra Gidley, MPs for the extension to Salisbury and on to Romsey, have also signed up.

We have received overwhelming encouragement from other organisations at a local and regional level, and we now hear reports of much more serious discussions involving the Department for Transport and the First Group amongst others.  Communications from both organisations within the last few days indicate a door that is pushed far more open to our proposals that at any time previously, with serious attention being given to both the financing and the timetabling of the new service.  And these are THE two key players.

"Save the Train" - TransWilts Train service between the major population centres of Wiltshire.

5th March 2007, at Well House Manor, 48 Spa Road, Melksham SN12 7NY.

19:00 (tea and coffee) for 19:30. We will meet attendees off the 19:08 train at Melksham, and ensure that everyone gets home afterwards.

Draft Agenda:

1. Welcome

2. Where are we now?

3. How can we get an appropriate service returned?
   (If we get good news later this month, we may be able to skip)

4. Community support to build, sell and retain the new service.
   What do we need to do?

5. Action plan - who, how, mechanisms.

6. Conclusion

It is anticipated that the meeting will close at around 21:30.

Contact - myself (graham@wellho.net)

I'm delighted to appoint Lee as a Global Moderator on this forum.

Very occasionally, there's a need for someone to "jump in" ... for example to remove posts which are off topic (e.g. advertising erotic material) or to help calm down an argument or remove the sounce code of a virus.  Actually, none of these has appeared on firstgreatwestern.info yet, so Lee's life might by quiet for a while ... but if you spot anything that you feel needs attention, let him, or me, or Nick know.

Lee - great to have you on board.

Good to see you here, Graham / Graz.    I've set up this board in addition to "Save the Train" as I've had requests from users of other lines for me to host a forum " like ...." and, after thinking it through - yes, it's a good idea.

The effect of issues is very different on your journey (where ovecrowding is nor rife, I understand) and my journeys and those of my clients, who used to use the train to Melksham (40% of them anyway) but have now migrated away to other means of transport to get here.  But the route cause of the malaise is the same - a contract between the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) and First, and the goals of both organisations who are parties in that  contract, which between them seem to give scant consideration to the customer's travel needs.

Do you feel like telling other people on your commute about this board    ... it's newly set up, and we don't have the marketing budget nor the team of press people that First have - but we do know we're on to something.  1700 names on that petition rather confirms it ...

On the government's figures ....

48% of journeys are made with season tickets or TravelCards.
50% of journeys are made with tickets purchased at the time of travel.
2% of journeys are made on advanced purchase tickets.

The "purchase at time of travel" category includes cheap day returns, saver tickets and full fare payers.

So if a train company were to remove the cheapest of it's special "walk up" fares and put restrictions on many of the others so that they were less used,  they would be significantly increasing their income.  If they offered a lot of new Advanced Purchase options at the same time, though, that would result only in a slight loss of revenue from that action.

In other word, a train company can significantly alter its balance sheet, at the expense of its passengers, by switching from Supersavers and other deals of that type to the advanced purchase tickets that I'm offered these days in profusion when I call up a timetable ... but which I cannot take advantage of because I don't know exactly what train I'll be returning on ....

Also, for a journey of 150 miles at full standard class fare you'll now pay ...

Over 50p per mile on Virgin West Coast or First Great Western
Around 40p per mile with Virgin Cross Country or GNER^▸ (Great North Eastern Railways)
Approx 30p per mile with South West Trains.

Some Bargains around ... 18p per mile, single, from London to Bristol - oh, that's London (Waterloo).

This forum is provided by a First Great Western Customer, for First Great Western customers.

Although many of us feel that the present product being supplied to us (Feb '07) falls well below acceptable standards, please don't just make this a knocking shop!.

Please use the forum - yes - to report and discuss failings, but also to liaise with others to help make improvements.  That may mean co-ordinating information, publicity ranging from "serious" to "stunt",  and alternatives.  But it also means posting the positive - a good fare offer or  service beyond the call of duty from the staff at a particular station for example.

Knowledge shared is powerful and this can become a real resource.  Please do post up as much other geeral information about the services, places served, good time had in the wedge of the country served westward from Paddington.  And advise on fare options, routes to go, and how to get a seat in the rush hour are all encouraged.

My personal objective is to work with the train operating company (FGW^▸ (First Great Western)), with the franchise setters (DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)), with the rest of the rail industry (from Network Rail through to the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers)), with local authorities at all levels, and with other passenger groups .... for the provision, together, of an appropriate service - running when and where it's needed, safely and reliably, and at a sensible cost.  And that service should be marketed / publicised so that it's easy to find out about, easy to use, easy for other transport providers to connect to ... and a great moving experience for the customers.

Hi, Jim .. and welcome.  Good to spot the errors, but let us know the good aspects too, eh 

Some notes on the agreement, and how it relates to www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop

1. Opinions are welcome, whether or not the operators of the board share them, but information which you know to be incorrect (or is misleading) is not.  Personal attacks on people / individuals are unacceptable and the moderators of the board will take appropriate action against anyone who violates these rules ... however,  we have a gentle moderation approach and you're likely to get no more than a gentle warning and a request to change your post if you go "beyond the mark" after a stressful commute from Pangbourne to Paddington one morning.

2. Please keep topics on stream; although we're looking specifically at First's Great Western franchise, other discussions such as the price that Arriva trains pay to rent a train may be appropriate but a site recommending pharmaceutical products probably isn't (travel sickness pills excepted?)

3. It's your responsibility as poster to keep it legal - and there's a whole raft of law from copyright through incitement to consider.   Please ask for advise if you need any - I'm happy to help.  And if you spot anything that you feel isn't appropriate, please met me or a moderator know.

4. Subject to higher legal authority, your identity (such as your email address) will be kept secret unless you choose to reveal it.   The board owners may choose to email you very occasional news updates concerning the board and / or main subjects covered, but it's not anticipated that we'll do this more than a handful of times every year.

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It seems that the "against the flow" early morning service to Worcester gets cut off in its prime and "bustituted" all too often ...

http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/wnnewslatest/display.var.1158188.0.ghost_train.php

Both these last two weeks, I've done drop off runs to Chippenham on Friday evening and the 16:55 to Paddington has been short.  "No Coach C" and then "No Coach G".   I've always thought that short formations were the exception ... wasup?

Thanks, Lee .... this shows the checks and balances that were being juggled .... with the original timetable and SLC^▸ (Service Level Commitment) being altered to favour the commuters in to Gloucester / Cheltenham over the commuters in to Swindon.   What should have happened was that both lines were given a decent service, of course.   But that's a story for another thread. on another section.

There seems to be quite a degree of confusion!   I'm posting this up to help clarify ....

"Save the Train" was started around 18 months ago (August 2005) with the main goal of providing an appropriate train service from Swindon to Westbury and beyond after December 2006, when it was threatened with reduction by over 60%, in spite of dramatically growing usage.  Although we had the support of hundreds of people who actively signed up, and produced evidence of ongoing growth that would have continued had the service done so, it was cut back last December. Worse than that, the 2 remaining trains are now timed such that they don't appear to meet the most important customer needs. The 06:19 leaves Swindon (largest town in Wiltshire) almost empty for Chippenham (4th largest), Melksham (5th), Trowbridge (3rd), Westbury, Warminster and Salisbury (2nd largest).  The 18:42 leaves long after the regular commuters from Swindon to these places have left by other means - primarily by private car.  The Train Operating Company hasn't provided me with any information as to the potential market they see for these new timings, but that have pointed to the need to re-use the same train on other lines to provide peak services there.

"More Train, Less Strain" was formed as a response to the December 2006 cuts in frequency and length of train services from Frome, Trowbridge, Bath and intermediate stations into Bristol, and the unreliability of the remaining services. The changes effect a large number of people and the highly publicised "fare strike" organised by the group appeared to win some respite - although it's very much 10 steps backwards and just 1 forward (a few carriages added back in where many were removed) and questions are being asked as to how permanent, or otherwise, the step forward will prove to be.

I am a resident of Melksham, Wiltshire, served ONLY by the Swindon to Westbury service which we have called the "TransWilts"; I host the "Save the Train" website at http://www.savethetrain.org.uk and I started the recent petition to the Prime Minister at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/wessextrains/ which gathered 1690 signatures in 3 weeks, making it number 8 out of 402 petitions on transportation and infrastructure.

The key players in "More Train, Less Strain" are Simon Carpenter of Frome, Tony Ambrose and Peter Andrews. Their web site is at http://www.moretrainlessstrain.co.uk .  Since this is a new group that "Save the Train", their web visibility is not as high and searches via Google on their name currently rank "Save the Train" higher. 

I've met with Tony and Peter, and we're in agreement that our groups need to liaise (at the least) as we're both looking for appropriate / decent services using the same pool of trains, with the same operator and regulation system involved. However, the distortions of the current timetable mean we have very different situations currently on the ground, with overcrowded peak hour trains on Peter and Tony's line, and no peak trains at all (passengers now on the road) on the TransWilts. 

Simon, Tony and Peter are your best contacts for the future direction of "MTLS^▸ (More Train Less Strain)", but I can tell you something of the future plans for "Save The Train".

At "Save the Train", we are very much in touch with all the key players and looking to work with them to sort out the current situation which, frankly, does no-one any good. It's pretty pointless running an empty pre-dawn train ... which is empty because anyone who wanted to use it for their daily commute wouldn't have an appropriate return service 8 hours or so later.  So we're working with First (who have been looking at the possibility of timetabling a round trip every 2 hours), the Department for Transport (from whom I've received an email overnight suggesting we might like to look at a community rail service initiative), our MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) (supporting all along the line - right across Wiltshire), county, district and town councils, other rail user groups, rail trades unions and staff, etc.  We could well be at a "cusp" - though it's hard to tell - where we CAN continue the push to an appropriate service and get that running before the end of the year.

Even before I heard from the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about), I was planning to call a co-ordination meeting in 4 weeks time and invite all the key players to look at the railway service and its provision from the community's viewpoint - to look at not only providing but also sustaining the service henceforth.  That meeting is scheduled for 5th March, in Melksham.

The "Save the Train" website has continued to monitor services and developments, and grow.  We have had a number of requests for forums in which services on other FGW^▸ (First Great Western) lines can be discussed by the franchise's customers, and we are now also hosting the http://www.firstgreatwestern.info site for that purpose.  There is merit in co-ordination.  We are very much aware that the stengthening of one servicve could lead to the reduction or abandonment of another - indeed, the 06:47 Frome to Bristol grew to 4 coaches in a blaze of publicity, in week that the 06:44 from Melksham was cancelled more often than it ran.

James, I have a similar thread running (sorry ... didn't realise the crossover).  Slightly out of area, but I see one of the worst is out from Southampron in the evening peak.   Same trains, of course!