Great Western Coffee Shop

TransWilts AGM - Saturday 6th May 2017
at Well House Manor, 48 Spa Road, Melksham, SN12 7NY.

The AGM is from 10.00 - 10.30 and followed by the open members meeting from 11.00 with refreshments.

Friends of TransWilts are individuals and organisations who support us and our objectives.  Frienda are automaticlly enrolled as members of the TransWilts Community Interest Company unless they opt out, and that gives them a vote at the AGM in addition to all the other benefits that friends get - see https://www.transwilts.org/friends-area .

Formal AGM notice went out to members a while back ... posting here as all are welcome; just that you can't vote if you're not a member.

Agenda for the AGM includes ...
- AGM formalities including accounts and review of year from Febrauary 2016 to January 2017 - Paul Johnson
- Friends update

Agenda for the open meeting

- TransWilts and GWR - Dan Okey of GWR
- Update on last few months and looking ahead - Graham Ellis

Open meeting topics likely to include ...
The First MTR franchise; Cascades latest; Marketing "Explore Wiltshire by Rail"; Other marketing plans; Upcoming timetable changes; Wilton and Melksham; Vision 2020 update; Associated User Groups; Bus Services Act; Recent bus changes in Wiltshire; Whence on buses?; TransWilts Office; England's Great West Way. And this is not a full and final list!

Edit to update agenda

Thank you for posting those (updated) details here, grahame.  :)

I have unfortunately had to miss previous such meetings of the TransWilts, due to work commitments - but this particular date happily coincides with my occasional Saturday day off!

I therefore look forward to seeing you in Melksham on Saturday!  ;D

Having attended the TransWilts AGM today, may I say what a fascinating discussion we enjoyed.

There was much cause for congratulation and celebration of what has been achieved so far, while acknowledging that there are more challenges to be met in the future.

My own particular thanks go to grahame, for hosting the meeting and his report as Community Rail Officer, and also to Paul Johnson (Chairman), Peter Blackburn (President) and Bob Morrison (Friends) of the TransWilts.

Also, from Great Western Railway, Dan Okey gave an excellent update from the TOCs point of view and answered questions as openly and honestly as he could - acknowledging that there are still many 'unknowns' about the future, with delays in electrification and rolling stock cascades.

It was also great to catch up with several other people I hadn't seen for a while.  ;)

Really great to catch up, Chris ... we must do it more often.    How often can you have an AGM?

Seriously, we're on line and working together, but that was the first occasion in a LONG while that all the active admins have been together.

I'll put up for in the morning ... Paul's report and other to the AGM - for the year to 31.1.2017 - to follow.  Slide sets for Dan Okey's presentation at http://atrebatia.info/dan_agm2017.pdf and mine at http://atrebatia.info/agm2017.pdf .  Any questions on mine, please ask.  And I can try to give you fill-in data as to what Dan said about points too.

edit to correct link

Grahame. Many thanks for posting those links.  I notice in Dan's slides:-

Platform extension to facilitate longer trains programmed for Spring 2018 (Design & Build contractors appointed)
Two car operation as soon thereafter as can be achieved by the cascade

This would seem to imply "thereafter", that two car units will follow the platform extension, and thus not for another year. Hopefully this isn't the case?

Dan confirmed that initial introduction of two car trains is not dependent on the commissioning of the longer platform; I should have added a late edit - "Two car turbo operation as soon thereafter as can be achieved by the cascade".  GW are dreadfully squeezed for stock due to the delays in being able to cascade, but a lack of being able to pass on some of those delays in the same way in stock being cascaded away from GWR.  It has been impressed on GWR that we cannot continue to grow the TransWilts as we have been doing if there's no room on the trains, and that damage done by not providing a service people can get onto in 2017 will probably have far reaching ripples for years ahead.   

To complement the earlier presentations, I've uploaded a copy of the annual report for the year ended 31st January 2017 at http://atrebatia.info/annual_report_cic_to_2017_01.pdf - this is the data that accompanied the talks (without "death by powerpoint!) in the earlier (official) section of the meeting.