Great Western Coffee Shop

A lot has happened in the last three week - with the designation of the TransWilts service on Thursday a fortnight ago and the announcement that the service continues as the base in the franchise. And earlier this week, Wiltshire Council decided not (after all ) to halve bus support subsidy next year, saving (by their calculation) some 97% of journeys by just cutting 10%.  It's rather better than just that too, since there's promised improved marketing to look forward to, and something of a commitment to work with community groups.

This evening, I had the pleasure of attending a reception at the House of Lords, organised by Lord Faulkner on behalf of the campaign for better transport - and it proved to be a very useful network evening.  It also confirmed that TransWilts is no longer 'under the radar' and in fact our success is being used in speeches as an illustration of what community rail - and perhaps a wider community rail - can do.   Two of us travelled up from Melksham on the 15:29 (change at Westbury) - we just managed to get seats together, and changed onto something much less full at Westbury; it's passengers it's all about, but the note in London gives a warm feeling - and could help in the future should we be pressing further / wider.

I often have notes / handouts around - even if not greatly used, they allow me to prepare and get myself tuned into what I'm taking about.    From tonight - issues, campaign and progress on buses and trains: http://atrebatia.info/lordsnotes.pdf