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Journey by Journey => London to the West => Topic started by: JayMac on March 21, 2015, 02:30:15



Title: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: JayMac on March 21, 2015, 02:30:15
From the Western Gazette (http://www.westerngazette.co.uk/TRACK-Somerton-Frome-candidates-support-new/story-26205124-detail/story.html?):

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(http://www.westerngazette.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276414/Article/images/26205124/9693936-large.jpg)
POLITICAL SUPPORT: All six election candidates for Somerton and Frome, including Conservative candidate David Warburton, have given their backing for a new station to serve Somerton and Langport. Picture by Nigel Andrews

THE six men fighting to be Somerton and Frome's next MP have thrown their weight behind the Western Gazette's campaign for a new railway station.

Last month the Western Gazette launched its Back On Track campaign to bring back a railway station to serve Somerton and Langport. Both towns have been without a railway station since the mid-1960s.

Each of the prospective parliamentary candidates has now expressed their support for the campaign.

Independent candidate Ian Angell said that extending the network was "a great idea".

He said: "We are all trying to find ways of minimising travel by car, but ironically it's a 20 to 30 minute car journey, or even longer by bus, to get to the nearest train station for most people living in the area. As well as allowing local residents a station on their doorstep, it would hopefully encourage visitors to the area, bringing in additional revenue and secure more jobs through business growth. As a resident of nearby Hambridge, a station would certainly have my support."

UKIP candidate Alan Dimmick said his party would fund new stations by scrapping the HS2 high speed rail project.

He said: "UKIP and I do not support HS2, but would scrap that project and spend the money improving and upgrading existing network and install additional local links. For far too long politicians, both local and national, have taken a very short-term view of investing in transport infrastructure. The local road network is at its limit, with heavy goods vehicles and the sheer volume of traffic is making peoples lives a misery."

Labour candidate David Oakensen described himself as "a whole-hearted supporter" of the campaign. Mr Oakensen campaigned in 2010 to reopen all the former stations on the line between Taunton and Frome.

He said: "We face two obstacles: the financial cost, and the structure of our privatised rail system. The money will not be provided by the rail companies, because there is no profit in it for them. We need a national solution that recognises the needs of the South West. Surely the only way to make it happen is a state-owned railway. Nationalisation may be old-fashioned, but sometimes the old ways are the best."

Liberal Democrat candidate David Rendel said that his party had been campaigning for stations for Somerton and Langport since the 1980s.

He said: "Liberal Democrat pressure as part of this coalition government has succeeded in allocating funds for infrastructure projects such as this. The time is absolutely ripe for the Western Gazette's campaign, which I wholeheartedly endorse. Current MP David Heath's efforts to keep campaigning on this issue appear now to have some chance of well-deserved success."

Green candidate Theo Simon said his party had "long advocated" re-opening rural railways stations.

He said: "Our railways have a key part to play in making the transition to low-carbon transport and integrated community life in rural Somerset. Improvements to our rail services cannot be delivered under the failed model of privatised rail franchises, because financial shareholders will always prioritise short-term profits over long-term investment. The social and environmental benefits make a strong enough case on their own."

Conservative candidate David Warburton said that bringing back a station would be an "absolute priority" if it was elected on May 7.

He said: "I'm asking Network Rail to include new stations for Somerton and Langport as part of their Western Route Study consultation. In the constituency we're beginning to see some successes, with South West Trains confirming that they propose to run new fast trains from Bruton and Frome direct to London Waterloo. The goals for Somerton and Langport are achievable and I've set out my aspirations to First Great Western."

To register your support for the Back on Track campaign, cut out and fill in the petition slip on page 7 of your Western Gazette and send it to the address provided.

How delightfully 20th Century. Filling out a coupon and sending it off! I'm going to do just that when at Mum's next if there;s still a copy of the Western Gazeyye with coupon around. A station at Langport would be ideal for me when visiting Mumsy just up the road in Curry Rivel.


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: JayMac on July 09, 2015, 13:06:18
The news from the Summer Budget announcement of additional money for the New Station Fund is potentially good news for a station to serve Langport and Somerton. A parkway type station would be ideal in this area. A station between Castle Cary and Taunton is specifically mentioned in the Budget statement.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/443232/50325_Summer_Budget_15_Web_Accessible.pdf#page=83

I'm cautiously optimistic that it may be possible in the near future to travel nearly all the way by train to my Mum in Curry Rivel, Somerset rather than having to rely on a bus from Taunton.


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: TaplowGreen on July 09, 2015, 18:42:29
I thought one of the much heralded benefits of the new trains was a reduction in journey times to the South West? Surely adding extra stops will slow things down?

(No offence to your Mum BNM!)  ;)


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: grahame on July 09, 2015, 18:56:14
I thought one of the much heralded benefits of the new trains was a reduction in journey times to the South West? Surely adding extra stops will slow things down?

Many a true word spoken in jest ... extra steps would indeed slow it down ... you'll find proposals for an express service to Plymouth and Penzance and a regional service overlaying it. 


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: JayMac on July 09, 2015, 21:52:18
One extra stop on the 'expresses' that currently call at Castle Cary, Westbury and stations between Pewsey and Reading isn't really that much of an issue. And as grahame says the proposals are for local services as well. Which could be good news for Frome an Bruton.

Who knows, we might see Swindon to Taunton services via Melksham and Frome.


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: TaplowGreen on July 10, 2015, 08:11:24
One extra stop on the 'expresses' that currently call at Castle Cary, Westbury and stations between Pewsey and Reading isn't really that much of an issue. And as grahame says the proposals are for local services as well. Which could be good news for Frome an Bruton.

Who knows, we might see Swindon to Taunton services via Melksham and Frome.

Ah so maybe something like "fast" London - Reading - Taunton - Tiverton - Exeter - Plymouth services, with slower "local" services picking up the stations in between?


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: rogerpatenall on July 10, 2015, 09:09:09
reminds me of a discussion in the early 1960's of an alternative Beeching proposal.
All fast WofE trains to travel via Bristol.
Wilton to Yeovil Junction and Castle Cary to Cogload to close.
Semi fasts from Paddington via the Berks & Hants to Castle Cary, thence Yeovil PM and Junction and stations to Exeter Central and St Davids.
Electrification from Worting Junction to Salisbury
I think it also envisaged closure from Yeovil to Dorchester Junction and the two avoiding lines.

Mind you, that would scupper any talk of a Somerton / Langport stop.


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: grahame on October 31, 2015, 21:47:45
For Langport - radio report from a year ago: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p029jfkb


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: bradshaw on March 16, 2017, 18:13:50
This has just come to my attention, although published last month.

http://www.somersetlive.co.uk/langport-s-generosity-brings-new-somerset-station-one-small-step-closer/story-30158856-detail/story.html

'To help raise the funding needed for the first stage of a feasibility study into a new station, Mr Warburton has written to every town and parish council in his constituency asking for contributions.

The Langport community has now thrown its hat into the ring, putting up £4,500 towards the cost of the study.Mr Warburton wrote in his letter to town clerk David Mears: "I realise the many competing financial demands that all parish [and town] councils now face, but any contribution would move us that much closer towards ensuring Somerton, Langport and surrounding villages are finally given the rail connectivity they need."

Earlier this month Langport Town Council narrowly voted - by a margin of five to four - to commit £3,000 towards the study after receiving Mr Warburton's request.At the same meeting, the council was informed that £1,000 had already been pledged by the Langport Area Business Group. Transition Langport, which has been campaigning for a new station for a number of years, has also pledged £500 - making a total of £4,500.
At a meeting held in Yeovil last autumn, the district council said that it was "in principle very much in favour" of the station, but needed to look seriously and in more detail at its own ability to provide funds towards the £30,000 needed.

The entire Governance for Railway Investment Projects (GRIP) process to get a station could cost around £300,000, but the government would refund from the point of a bid being accepted.   

Somerset County Council said that it could not contribute any money up front towards the first stage of the study, but said it would provide "technical input, expertise and manpower" to help things forward.

In spite of Langport's generosity, the location of any new station will not be decided until the feasibility study is complete.

In a poll conducted by Somerset Live, just over a quarter (28 per cent of respondents) voted that a new station between Taunton and Castle Cary should be built at Langport.

By contrast, 42 per cent said that the new station should be in Somerton, 20 per cent said it should be between the two towns, and ten per cent said that people should just drive to the current stations instead.
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Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: rogerpatenall on March 17, 2017, 10:43:28
". . . but any contribution would move us that much closer towards ensuring Somerton, Langport and surrounding villages are finally given the rail connectivity they need."

What does he mean 'finally given? They had stations which weren't viable and were closed. And I suspect (with no statistical knowledge at all) that a large proportion of any traffic would be at the expense of extraction from Taunton and Castle Cary. And will folk from Somerton get in their car to drive to Langport for the joy of passing back through Somerton 20 odd minutes later? (I am assuming that flows to/from London are the - tenuous - economic justification).






Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: TonyK on January 05, 2018, 17:02:36
I have just looked at this as part of my house-hunting activities.

Somerton has a population of a little under 5,000, and a can't any new development happening that would increase that figure greatly. Langport has only just over a thousand living there, so if it was a straight choice between the two, it would have to be Somerton that got the new station. Castle Cary, or at least the Cary electoral ward, has a population roughly equal to that of Somerton and Langport together. That suggests to me the reason why it survived Beeching. Plus, at around 28 miles from Taunton, it is a long stretch of railway without a station, although Bruton is only 5 miles further.

In a campaign for a station, both Somerton and Langport have the advantage of being on a live railway. Somerton would have my backing for reopening on the population front. Plus, roads around that area make a drive to Castle Cary or Taunton a much greater trip than the straight line of the railway. The bus service to Langport and Somerton is the same route (Taunton to Yeovil) and isn't brilliant at roughly hourly.

Experience of Cranbrook suggests that a new station is unlikely without big plans for expansion.


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: JayMac on January 05, 2018, 18:22:47
Well, I have some experience of living in Langport.

Fine if you like an insular community with self serving local politicians. The Town Council recently resigned en masse after their shady dealings with the local funny handshake brigade were exposed. The council planned to sell one of Langport's iconic buildings, The Hanging Chapel, to the apron wearing gang, who are currently just tenants.

The Hanging Chapel, along with other buildings and land in Langport, are held by the charitable Langport Town Trust for the benefit and enjoyment of all town residents. The Chapel sale was rubber stamped by the Town Council (who act as trustees) without public consultation, or being put on the open market. This was against both the Trust's and Charity Commission's rules.

When publicly exposed by the lone Councillor who voted against the sale to the rolled up trousers troupe, the rest of the council resigned. But not before they'd threatened their whistle-blowing colleague with legal action.

The new town council are obviously unproven, but with it being a rather insular place I don't see radical change. I know one of the new councillors personally. A good friend to my stepfather, who helped immensely during his illness and death. She, though is very pro car. I doubt she'll be fighting hard to see Langport return to the passenger rail network.

In some respects Langport caught the Somerton disease. Up the road, in the capital of the Kingdom of Wessex, their town council also resigned en masse a few years ago. Again, dodgy back room deals that benefitted individuals rather than the community, with suspected masonic involvement. A bit more serious was this one. There were arrests for misconduct in public office. CPS didn't proceed though. The mass resignation even attracted the attention of BBC Newsnight, with Michael Crick interviewing the indignant and unrepentant Councillors. They'd been exposed by a local blogger and were most upset that their dodgy deals were laid bare for all to read about. Said blogger, a local resident, was threatened with legal action, was on the receiving end of thinly veiled threats, and subject to acts of criminal damage to his property and vehicles.

It's a strange little corner of Somerset. Nice enough folk, but be very wary of the local politicians.

As for a station site. Both towns deserve reconnecting to the rail network. My preference would be a Parkway style station between the two. With a proper linking bus service. Such a station could have a wider catchment and the build be less disruptive than a site in either town. My belief though is no plan will ever get off the ground.

So, if you move to the area, FT,N, get used to the drive to Castle Cary, Yeovil or Taunton for trains. Taunton, whilst having the best train service of the three is the worst to get to by road. No avoiding the A358 through Henlade, Somerset's worst major route bottleneck. Plans are afoot to improve the A358 by dualling and bypassing Henlade, but that's at least 7 years away and could be never. The easiest drive is that to Castle Cary. That's what I was doing after passing my test and before moving away.

Oh, and the bus service is terrible. Expensive, unreliable, old vehicles, and nothing in the evenings or on Sundays. It was marginally better when there was competition from WebberBus, but they went  t*ts up in mid 2016.

And another 'Oh'. Langport's Tesco is the place to go If you like your car doors dinged and wing mirrors broken. With a large rural catchment you get a lot of 4x4s whose owners seem incapable of parking.

Not really selling the area as a place to live am I?  ;)


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: TonyK on January 05, 2018, 22:57:29
I take it you didn't get that job with the local estate agent then, BNM?  ;D

The truth is that we have no idea where we are going. We have been looking for somewhere for some three years, being keen not to make mistakes, but it hasn't happened so far that we have found the right home in the right place. We were well on the way to somewhere when the seller pulled out, but carried on and sold our Bristol home anyway, safe in the knowledge that somewhere else would show up within a fortnight. Five months later...

It's amazing how many places in Somerset, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire and even Cornwall have made it onto the list of places we don't want to live. A sticking point is public transport - Mrs FT, N! doesn't drive (and annoyingly seldom drinks more than a single glass of wine at dinner) and I have to accept that I won't always be in my late 30s. That was how I came across this thread whilst doing a bit of research.

For the record, like you I can't see either Langport or Somerton getting a station this side of the Apocalypse. It must be so frustrating to hear trains rumble so close by, yet so far away.


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: JayMac on January 05, 2018, 23:08:39
For the record, like you I can't see either Langport or Somerton getting a station this side of the Apocalypse. It must be so frustrating to hear trains rumble so close by, yet so far away.

Here's one of said trains. Right through the heart of Langport. 6th January 2017. bobm was on this one, having lunch!



One thing I forgot about transport options in Langport. There is a Mon-Sat bus service to and from Bridgwater, passing right by Bridgwater station.

The only problem with this is that it takes you to Bridgwater. Not something I'd wish on my worst enemy.


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: TonyK on January 05, 2018, 23:17:16

Here's one of said trains. Right through the heart of Langport. 6th January 2017. bobm was on this one, having lunch!


Now that really IS rubbing it in. Not even in a cutting!

Quote
One thing I forgot about transport options in Langport. There is a Mon-Sat bus service to and from Bridgwater, passing right by Bridgwater station.

The only problem with this is that it takes you to Bridgwater. Not something I'd wish on my worst enemy.

I've been there, and feel your pain.


Title: Re: Somerton and Frome candidates support new station for Somerton and Langport
Post by: grahame on January 06, 2018, 05:11:52
Now that really IS rubbing it in. Not even in a cutting!

Need to stop at the Chocolate Poodle too.    Except the railway line there's on an embankment too and apparently that puts the cost of construction for a new / re-built station up through the roof.



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