On Wednesday, 22nd May 2024, Paddy Bradley, the recently appointed chair of the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership, will address members and guests of the West Wiltshire Rail Users Group.  Coffee available from 19:00, and Paddy will be filling us in from 19:30.  There will also be a brief general rail news update for the area, and an opportunity to network and ask questions. Public very welcome - we (West Wiltshire Rail Users Group) ask you for £2 as a contribution towards our costs as we are an indepedent group funded purely by our members, or you could join on the night for £8 a year (£10 for family).

The event takes place at the Bethesda Church Hall, which is about 100 yards from Trowbridge Station, and will conclude in time for people who are headed home by train to catch their services:
21:18 to Cardiff Central via Bradford-on-Avon, Bath and Bristol
21:22 to Swindon via Melksham and Chippenham (connection to Paddington)
21:31 to Weymouth via Westbury (connection to Plymouth) and Frome
21:52 for intermediate stations to Bristol including Avoncliff
21:58 to Portsmouth Harbour via Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury

Since the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership was formed some 15 years ago, to help promote use of the rail line from Swindon via Chippenham to Melksham and Trowbridge to Westbury, services and use have been transformed out of all recognition.  From around 10 passengers a day using Melksham station, served only by this line, nunbers have risen to over 200 passengers on an average day, and that's only a part of the story with the same trains also providing a link in just 19 minutes between Wiltshire's largest towns of Chippenham and Trowbridge.  The 20 fold passenger increase has been made possible by a four fold increase in the number of services, and the doubling of the length of the trains which has ensured that there is room on the trains for the passengers.

A success story, yes, which has been helped along by that partnership between the community and the rail indusrty with local and national goverment playing a crucial role too. But this is a story of a project that's still under way. The numbers look impressive as presented above, but the train service at just 9 a day is still thin, and many people tell me that they don't use it because of the inconvenience of the long gaps.  Analysis including comparisons with other similar services and towns in England suggests that an increase to an hourly "clockface" service in which the train leaves at the same time in every hour - that's 16 or 17 services a day - would increase passenger journey numbers to at least 700 per day (using the to / from Melksham measure), and that the quarter of a million annual journeys now made on the line would become more like a million each year.

TransWilts has over the years widened its portfolio - the best description I would apply is that they look to journeys within, to, from, and though Wiltshire, and a great deal of useful activity / excellent work has taken place both within communities and at a strategic level, helping lay a grounding for a positive future with both existing services and additional ones, perhaps serving new stations in the county and destinations beyond.

It's a little rusty, but there is a "who are we - the people behind firstgreatwesten.info" thread at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/1780 which introduces all the administrators. There is no secret as to who we are.  I'm also the webmaster / technical lead and you can find out all (or, rather, probably more than you want to know) about me - current blog at http://grahamellis.uk/blog.html and it includes a picture of me - two at present in fact, with a selfie within a recent blog. Lots more pictures at http://grahamellis.uk/pictures.html

All on-topic posts are welcome.  I suggested that you might like to include a link to the TV show you're telling us about as that would help other members find it quickly; that's especially the case on local news which is available for just a day. Others have "liked" my post and followed up to indicate that they too would find it useful.  I'm sorry if you see my input as bullying - it's the last thing I intend, but sometimes suggestions you may not agree with can come across a bit forceful in the written word.

Thank you for the invite to call - I am not about to do so in the middle of the night; you are most likley asleep and also having raised your concerns on the public forum, I suspect that others will want to read my response. Should you wish to call me (between 07:00 and 19:00 please!), my numbers are at http://grahamellis.uk/contact.html

I'm suspecting it's within https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ylys - but, please, Infoman - on these shows that are only available for 24 hours especially could you please post the URL with the headline - that way we have longer to see what you are recommending us to see - thanks!

Who knows? We are in a different world.

Over half a lifetime ago, when I was in my first youth, I travelled a lot by train, including on a number of lines (but far too few) that closed soon thereafter.  Trains were infrequent and slow and sometimes perverse and I can't remember there being the problems we have / here about these days with overcrowding on them, nor with missing connections.   Stations like Slaggyford and Tumby Woodside come to mind - intermediate calls on quiet trains with few passengers getting on or off.  Chasing sheep with a DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) in the first case; people just groaning at all the stops from Firsby to Lincoln on a summer Saturday train taking holiday makers home from Skeggy.  And the train when it got back into Haltwhistle just sitting idle waiting for its next run a number of hours later.

In our different world, these lines have gone.  Other lines and stations, though, have broadened their services whilst at the same time slimming down the infrastructure sometimes too much and making staff and rolling stock utilisation so much more "efficient" that all too often there is no longer the capacity to cope with events out of the ordinary.   And so things like trains waiting for connections don't simply leave the arrival at a branch terminal a bit late - these days they bounce back on the return service too.  And service frequency increases mean that in many cases the wait for the next train in any case is far shorter than it used to be. 

There ARE times that services wait, but they are few and far between. The frustration we feel in coming home from London to Melksham and waiting for the next of 9 trains per day (i.e. onto a service that remains a poor frequency) is - well - frustrating (!!) but thank goodness that the 22:30 last train does wait a few minutes if the London express that connects with it is a few minutes late.  And it can do do because there are no onward connections or next duties to be covered.   In contrast, a delayed service Melksham to London is no problem - sure, if the connection fails at Swindon there is going to be another train a few minutes later.

Not sure how much this is changed by who runs the trains and how delays are analysed.  Perhaps what's needed is a modern vision that invests in making the service reliable rather than stretching resources to their extreme, and providing the resource to handle the resulting confidence in rail and its further growth as an integrated service which is environementally good and a pleasure for its customers to use.   Who manages that modern railway, who runs the trains, who sets the strategy from where the tactics become clear is irrelevant provided that the are committed to the public transport network as something that's a natural and loved part of everyday life.

How does "pay as you go" work for first class travel?

Yes, Indeed - Stockholm.  Food bar in the supermarket in the station. Made up a nice salad to eat on the way

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Press release - https://news.gwr.com/news/tapping-into-a-smarter-way-to-travel-in-swindon-and-the-stroud-valley-with-the-help-of-some-tap-dancers

2, correctly identified as Haparanda.  Waiting room for 3 trains a day, harking back to historic role in the buildings and facilities all of which seem to be just waiting for people to use them.

The Picadeli picture is actually in a a station outlet and Lulea is a small station with a tiny footfall, so - sorry - no.

The large field in near Jorn ... from the Lulea to Umea train and, no, you had zero chance of identifying that much more than "a field in northern half of Sweden"

Yeah - quoting and formatting looked a bit odd (easy for that to happen with nested tags).  I have edited it for clarity to show as I think you intended. 

Fjord Engineering have proposed a tramway for Eastbourne and Linkedin tells me their MD is Brighton based


https://applrguk.co.uk/media/files/LR-Applrg-Eastbourne-Sept-2020pdf

"applrguk" is the All Party Parlimentary Group - https://applrguk.co.uk/media/files/ leads to some interesting content!

It doesn't take much, does it? I would add
* A bedside table or stand with a flat top to put glasses (for eyes) and a glass (for water) on
* A light / light switch at the bed so that the way on and out of bed in the middle of the night can be navigated
* A bed head or wall against which I can sit up (and not leave a gap as the bed wheels away from the wall

I have seen failures on all five of these fundamentals in recent weeks, and other design "sillies" too ...

Modern / luxury needs add
* Something to make a cup of coffee
* En suite loo (not even a private one in a separate room up the public corridor) and a wash basin
* A place that can be found on arrival without a struggle and with having a wait to be le in

For me personally, no need for clock or TV, or indeed for WiFi if there is good (strong) access to the phone networks

Home game for the Volks Electric Railway

  

Both correct

I was answering a question on an online forum, asking about the connection as Zidani Most off the train from Budapest for passengers headed for Zagreb, which I used recently.   On that occasion, the train from Budapest was running a few minutes late and I was concerned at whether the connection (10 minutes scheduled) would actually "make".  It was very clear from the train manager that we should not worry, and I can understand that the staff at Zidani Most would not want to be landed with a load of disgruntled passenger there waiting for the next train.   Yeah, we were a bit late ... but the Zagreb train had not left - it did so a couple of minutes after we arrived from Budapest.



This afternoon, the 15:14 from Swindon to Westbury left Melksham 13 minutes late (delayed by a diverted train due to a bridge hit on the Berks and Hants) ... and it arrived into Westbury at 16:06.     Any chance or the 16:03 Portsmouth train waiting for the connection?   You must be joking - it left just 2 and a bit minutes before the train from Swindon arrived and I note from Real Time Trains it was 2 minutes ahead of itself at Wylye ... nice one!