Great Western Coffee Shop

The Melksham Rail User Group is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Melksham RUG - Agenda to Follow
Time: Jul 8, 2020 04:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85073746660?pwd=ZXF4bFdLeWZrMUxqRWFaaVpxSXRBZz09

Meeting ID: 850 7374 6660
Password: 079700

Please let me know if you're coming along.  We will have a waiting room in place to admit members who are known to us or who have contacted us ahead of time.

6.7.2020 - There's a lot of exciting things been happening ... meeting postponed for Wednesday.  Still planning to publish the July newsletter - probably early next week - to update members and our wider readership.

The MRUG June Newsletter ( http://www.mrug.org.uk/mrugnews_202006.pdf ) introduced the draft Neighbourhood Plan ( http://www.melkshamneighbourhoodplan.org ) with the consultation deadline a few days after this 8th July meeting.   If you live in Melksham:

1. Please take a look at the plan and provide feedback to the team who are consulting.   People tend to be critical, so if you have nice things to say about policies for transport provision (and there are plenty of nice things to say), please do write in - you could help make a positive difference

2. Please come along to our Zoom meeting - MRUG will be collecting further inputs than day with a view to finalising our response prior to the deadline, and we really want to reflect member's views.

Agenda item for 8th July - prior discussion encouraged!

What shape public transport in Melksham in "the new normal"?

How do we help ensure people get out and about?

Think ... health, economy, congestion climate and clean air, inclusivity, quality of life.


There is general agreement in Melksham on what the shape forward of public transport forward in Melksham should be. I have written up much of that at http://www.passenger.chat/23686 . There is only limited activity in making that actually happen - either in the tweaks needed (that's all they are) to the previous routes and timetables.  And there is no significant activity towards helping to inform people about what's available, or preparing to do so.

"Let's hope" ... writes one local councillor.  I think we need to do rather more than hope.  We should not rely on hope alone.

*Perhaps we should follow the Belgian model of offering a number of free trips to encourage people back and new users Before you laugh, it was done in the form of free town bus fortnight in Melksham about 6 years ago.

* Perhaps we should offer a combined timetable / information leaflet around to residents. I have (privately) heard of a potential survey question in a very narrow area which might trigger a few people to think; a scratch on the surface, to be commended, but so much more is needed.

* Perhaps we should be offering help - "Travel Planners" as (again) has been done with some success elsewhere in Wiltshire within the last few years.  Together with first escorted / supported trips?

Let me quote suggestions from some of the most experienced people across the South West ( see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/twsw20200612 ) :

"We need to go where the people are and not expect them to come to us" - Claire Walters
"Marketing via CRPs and Community involvement is crucial" - Tim Davis
"Pandemic not a disruption but an eruption. Leaves debris of fertile soil - just don't know what it will grow. Community Rail / heroes blazed trail. I wonder if this can widen to bus too" - Chris Irwin

And the answer here for Melksham, so far, is that local government is relying on "hope". Come on, we can do better. We have attainable service targets, and there's nothing to stop us following the suggestions of Claire, or Tim, or Chris - or Richard Gamble or Paul Johnson here in Wiltshire; the door is unlocked - just needs pushing open.

I will ... offer ... to push at the door.   Agenda item for Melksham Rail User Group meeting, online on 8th July at 4 p.m. - see http://www.passenger.chat/23632 for code. That's a little bit far ahead for my liking in this fast moving scene; the Melksham News is out again this week, and tomorrow there's an announcement on potential changes from The Government - watch this space for follow ups.

Bump! .... Meeting code at http://www.passenger.chat/23632

With exceptional activity over recent days, the newsletter that comes out in the first few days of each month has been delayed (please expect it in about a week).  As the newsletter is one of the main channels though which the Zoom meeting code and agenda are distributed, the general MRUG Zoom meeting scheduled for this  Wednesday has been postponed. Updated plans will be in the newsletter ... and of course here!