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My correspondent (who I have anonymised) wrote to our MP▸ (Member of Parliament) about his shocking problems getting to and from work, and the significant extra costs and problems when a train is cancelled. My reply to him:
Quote
Dear [name redacted],
Many thanks for copying me in to your letter to Brian Mathew MP and GWR▸ (Great Western Railway), which I acknowledged on Friday and promised a further follow up in a day or two. This is that follow up - or the first follow up anyway.
To note initially
1. The train service provided by GWR at Melksham has for some time been far too unreliable for it to be fit for the purpose of getting people around, including (in your case) getting them to and from employment.Especially where the changes are made at the last minute, the consequential inconvenience [stronger word needed] is awful, off-putting, time-wasting, expensive.
2. I am an unpaid local campaigner and have absolutely no authority/power over anyone, except the power to suggest, inform, persuade people and explain how it is in their interests to fix the problems which impact so hard on their customers and wannabe customers, and so on their own business. That is made more complex by the government's intent to take away the GWR contract from First Group; it removes or reduces their motivation ("why should we bother?" they could say)
Having noted those fundamentals, I have been involved with First Group (First Great Western and now marketed as GWR) for many years and during that time we have taken the train service at Melksham from being a joke ("2 train a day - too early and too late") to being something which on paper looks reasonable but thin. Passenger number climbed from 3,000 journeys per annum (that's just 5 people leaving Melksham by train a day!) in 2013 to 75,000 in 2018 - a 25 fold increase. But since then, Covid and concentration moving elsewhere have meant this has fallen back with the big problem being reliability. The timetable is thin (experts confirm the train should be at least hourly) but it's the failure of some trains to run on nearly all days than not that needs urgent fixing. How do we (! problem - I can only ask) fix that?
Four steps ... which I have used before ...
1. Make people with influence or authority aware there is an issue to be fixed
2. Have them work out how to fix it
3. Implement the fixes
4. Work darned had to ensure that the fixes work, are tuned, and it stays fixed!
These things overlap ... but I have been invited to a meeting this Thursday. Meetings do not in themselves solve problems and may be offered to help "keep the natives quiet". BUT there are good people working for GWR and for the Department for Transport, who are their puppeteers just as First Group parent is. Do not expect any quick fix - in fact there are engineering works this week that decimate the service from Tuesday to Thursday, expected staff shortages on Saturday and Sunday, and then virtually no service from 25th December to 23rd January 2025.
There are a number of public transport groups around - toothless, but we can chew at bones and be noticed. More to follow on that - in Melksham, take a look at https://grahamellis.uk/blog1429.html and you would be very welcome on 19th.
It is also - very - useful to keep our MPs in the loop. For Melksham - Brian Mathew. And on le the line also Heidi Alexander for Swindon (she is actually the Transport Minister now), Sarah Gibson in Chippenham, and Andrew Murrison for both Trowbridge and Westbury. This is / should be common cause across all parties - you have Labour and Conservative there as well as Liberal Democrat.
Melksham is unusually sensitive to train cancellations. There is NOT another one along here in 20 minutes, our line is often used for diversions, and if anything goes wrong on the main lines at either end we are in trouble. Furthermore, we have a line which had its capacity slashed a generation ago and even the thin normal service struggles. Short term we are working with GWR and DfT» (Department for Transport - about) to suggest and champion fixes. Medium and longer term too - and there is a great deal of work going on to look ahead 5, 10 and 15 years but that must be in addition to getting it right or a lot better from late January 2025.
Long answer - which I will share with Brian Mathew's team. I am answering from my own email address here ( graham@sn12.net ), as my term as Town Councillor ends in the spring but I will very much remain around even after that (unpaid) role is gone. Actually looking forward to that, as it will allow me to concentrate on the public transport element of what I do - Melksham Transport Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group, and as a director of TravelWatch SouthWest too.
Please - I may sound busy but please do follow up as / when / if you wish. I live in Melksham, I am retired, and this stuff is my life, with transport users current and potential being my lifeblood.
Graham
Graham Ellis
48 Spa Road, Melksham SN12 7NY - 07974 925 928
https://grahamellis.uk - graham@sn12.net
My emailling policy: https://grahamellis.uk/email
Many thanks for copying me in to your letter to Brian Mathew MP and GWR▸ (Great Western Railway), which I acknowledged on Friday and promised a further follow up in a day or two. This is that follow up - or the first follow up anyway.
To note initially
1. The train service provided by GWR at Melksham has for some time been far too unreliable for it to be fit for the purpose of getting people around, including (in your case) getting them to and from employment.Especially where the changes are made at the last minute, the consequential inconvenience [stronger word needed] is awful, off-putting, time-wasting, expensive.
2. I am an unpaid local campaigner and have absolutely no authority/power over anyone, except the power to suggest, inform, persuade people and explain how it is in their interests to fix the problems which impact so hard on their customers and wannabe customers, and so on their own business. That is made more complex by the government's intent to take away the GWR contract from First Group; it removes or reduces their motivation ("why should we bother?" they could say)
Having noted those fundamentals, I have been involved with First Group (First Great Western and now marketed as GWR) for many years and during that time we have taken the train service at Melksham from being a joke ("2 train a day - too early and too late") to being something which on paper looks reasonable but thin. Passenger number climbed from 3,000 journeys per annum (that's just 5 people leaving Melksham by train a day!) in 2013 to 75,000 in 2018 - a 25 fold increase. But since then, Covid and concentration moving elsewhere have meant this has fallen back with the big problem being reliability. The timetable is thin (experts confirm the train should be at least hourly) but it's the failure of some trains to run on nearly all days than not that needs urgent fixing. How do we (! problem - I can only ask) fix that?
Four steps ... which I have used before ...
1. Make people with influence or authority aware there is an issue to be fixed
2. Have them work out how to fix it
3. Implement the fixes
4. Work darned had to ensure that the fixes work, are tuned, and it stays fixed!
These things overlap ... but I have been invited to a meeting this Thursday. Meetings do not in themselves solve problems and may be offered to help "keep the natives quiet". BUT there are good people working for GWR and for the Department for Transport, who are their puppeteers just as First Group parent is. Do not expect any quick fix - in fact there are engineering works this week that decimate the service from Tuesday to Thursday, expected staff shortages on Saturday and Sunday, and then virtually no service from 25th December to 23rd January 2025.
There are a number of public transport groups around - toothless, but we can chew at bones and be noticed. More to follow on that - in Melksham, take a look at https://grahamellis.uk/blog1429.html and you would be very welcome on 19th.
It is also - very - useful to keep our MPs in the loop. For Melksham - Brian Mathew. And on le the line also Heidi Alexander for Swindon (she is actually the Transport Minister now), Sarah Gibson in Chippenham, and Andrew Murrison for both Trowbridge and Westbury. This is / should be common cause across all parties - you have Labour and Conservative there as well as Liberal Democrat.
Melksham is unusually sensitive to train cancellations. There is NOT another one along here in 20 minutes, our line is often used for diversions, and if anything goes wrong on the main lines at either end we are in trouble. Furthermore, we have a line which had its capacity slashed a generation ago and even the thin normal service struggles. Short term we are working with GWR and DfT» (Department for Transport - about) to suggest and champion fixes. Medium and longer term too - and there is a great deal of work going on to look ahead 5, 10 and 15 years but that must be in addition to getting it right or a lot better from late January 2025.
Long answer - which I will share with Brian Mathew's team. I am answering from my own email address here ( graham@sn12.net ), as my term as Town Councillor ends in the spring but I will very much remain around even after that (unpaid) role is gone. Actually looking forward to that, as it will allow me to concentrate on the public transport element of what I do - Melksham Transport Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group, and as a director of TravelWatch SouthWest too.
Please - I may sound busy but please do follow up as / when / if you wish. I live in Melksham, I am retired, and this stuff is my life, with transport users current and potential being my lifeblood.
Graham
Graham Ellis
48 Spa Road, Melksham SN12 7NY - 07974 925 928
https://grahamellis.uk - graham@sn12.net
My emailling policy: https://grahamellis.uk/email
I have also followed back up to our MP and his case worker
Quote
Dear [name redacted] and Brian,
Many thanks for the introduction - [name redacted] has copied me - I’ll paste a copy of my reply below and you are welcome to to use / share it and my contact details too - please use the graham@sn12.net <mailto:graham@sn12.net> as I cease to be a Town Councillor in the spring and will loose that email address. In transport campaigning, being a town councillor has been more a yoke around my neck than a help, so my passenger / transport role will vigorously continue ;-) - looking to partner with all parties for the sake of the passengers, the wider population and the local economy, and the environment
Immediate “case” issues … train reliability could be fixed by:
1. A change in GWR cancellation policy so that when they are short of train crew they take into consideration the gap to the next train. From Westbury / Trowbridge / Bradford on Avon the train to Bath and Bristol leaves 3 times an hour and the gap is a mere inconvenience. From Melksham to Chippenham and Swindon, if the 10:02 is cancelled, the next train is not until 12:33 …
2. When the Melksham service is withdrawn because of diverted semi-fast trains coming through, those diverted trains should cal at Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham in addition to Westbury and Swindon. Melksham was recently added to the database on board these trains, so technically they can now stop. These are “semifasts” and the journeys slowed by the resultant extra stops will be from Castle Cary and Westbury to Reading and London; the expresses from Plymouth and Cornwall typically divert through Bristol, so I am NOT asking for intercity services to be delayed with extra calls.
3. It should be made clear to inconvenienced passengers that they may ask for alternative road transport which should be routinely and promptly provided. I was shocked to read that your corerspondent was incurring significant taxi bills. GWR are obliged to provide an alternative (except in cases such as when the weather makes that dangerous) within a reasonable time if asked, but they should not wait to be asked, nor should they keep quiet about this obligation
4. Cross acceptance of train tickets on the buses should be automatic when the trains are up the swaney. Really the bus and train companies should always accept each other’s tickets as that would boost usage and revenue for both of them, but that’s a bigger story
5. Information systems should be kept up to date. This morning, for example, Journeycheck has been telling people that all trains are cancelled even though they started running - first train to call at Melksham 06:32 and it’s been very interesting helping passengers confused by the conflicting information
6. Not so much Melksham but the line as a whole. When trains through Melksham are cancelled, passengers are redirected travelling from Westbury and Trowbridge to Chippenham and Swindon to change at Bath Spa. Sensible, but it’s cheeky of GWR to ask for a return fare of £18.90 rather than £9.40 when booking online for this. Yes, their ticket inspectors ARE instructed to accept a “via Melksham” ticket the long way round if one is offered, but GWR should make the lower fare available automatically and there should not be a “need to know”.
Your support / forwarding of these immediate suggestions to GWR, the DfT and to the minister could be most helpful. It would seem to be in everyone’s interest .., the more so with longer term economic and environment issues and the massive growth planned for Melksham.
Graham
Graham Ellis
48 Spa Road, Melksham SN12 7NY- 07974 925 928
https://grahamellis.uk - graham@sn12.net
My emailling policy: https://grahamellis.uk/email
Many thanks for the introduction - [name redacted] has copied me - I’ll paste a copy of my reply below and you are welcome to to use / share it and my contact details too - please use the graham@sn12.net <mailto:graham@sn12.net> as I cease to be a Town Councillor in the spring and will loose that email address. In transport campaigning, being a town councillor has been more a yoke around my neck than a help, so my passenger / transport role will vigorously continue ;-) - looking to partner with all parties for the sake of the passengers, the wider population and the local economy, and the environment
Immediate “case” issues … train reliability could be fixed by:
1. A change in GWR cancellation policy so that when they are short of train crew they take into consideration the gap to the next train. From Westbury / Trowbridge / Bradford on Avon the train to Bath and Bristol leaves 3 times an hour and the gap is a mere inconvenience. From Melksham to Chippenham and Swindon, if the 10:02 is cancelled, the next train is not until 12:33 …
2. When the Melksham service is withdrawn because of diverted semi-fast trains coming through, those diverted trains should cal at Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham in addition to Westbury and Swindon. Melksham was recently added to the database on board these trains, so technically they can now stop. These are “semifasts” and the journeys slowed by the resultant extra stops will be from Castle Cary and Westbury to Reading and London; the expresses from Plymouth and Cornwall typically divert through Bristol, so I am NOT asking for intercity services to be delayed with extra calls.
3. It should be made clear to inconvenienced passengers that they may ask for alternative road transport which should be routinely and promptly provided. I was shocked to read that your corerspondent was incurring significant taxi bills. GWR are obliged to provide an alternative (except in cases such as when the weather makes that dangerous) within a reasonable time if asked, but they should not wait to be asked, nor should they keep quiet about this obligation
4. Cross acceptance of train tickets on the buses should be automatic when the trains are up the swaney. Really the bus and train companies should always accept each other’s tickets as that would boost usage and revenue for both of them, but that’s a bigger story
5. Information systems should be kept up to date. This morning, for example, Journeycheck has been telling people that all trains are cancelled even though they started running - first train to call at Melksham 06:32 and it’s been very interesting helping passengers confused by the conflicting information
6. Not so much Melksham but the line as a whole. When trains through Melksham are cancelled, passengers are redirected travelling from Westbury and Trowbridge to Chippenham and Swindon to change at Bath Spa. Sensible, but it’s cheeky of GWR to ask for a return fare of £18.90 rather than £9.40 when booking online for this. Yes, their ticket inspectors ARE instructed to accept a “via Melksham” ticket the long way round if one is offered, but GWR should make the lower fare available automatically and there should not be a “need to know”.
Your support / forwarding of these immediate suggestions to GWR, the DfT and to the minister could be most helpful. It would seem to be in everyone’s interest .., the more so with longer term economic and environment issues and the massive growth planned for Melksham.
Graham
Graham Ellis
48 Spa Road, Melksham SN12 7NY- 07974 925 928
https://grahamellis.uk - graham@sn12.net
My emailling policy: https://grahamellis.uk/email
(the place!)
