Ah ... you mean these scenes taken soon after the December 2006 timetable change
We can discuss - years later - as to whether the service withdrawls, rescheduling for stock use rather than to meet passenger requirements, and formation cuts were the responsibility of the
DfT» (under previous ministers to Ruth Kelly), of First (who undertook to carry out the timetable changes and bid the number of trains they needed), or some of both.
At the time, I looked at that picture of a line of 4 x 153 doing nothing, and thought "that's OUR train" ... the 07:30 Westbury to Swindon, the 16:47 Westbury to Swindon. The 08:46 Swindon to Westbury. The 17:44 Swindon to Wetsbury. The 22:11 Swindon to Westbury. Our commuter service ... gone, leaving trains at just 06:20 and 18:44 from Swindon to Westbury and at 07:04 and 19:35 back to Swindon. Our late evening service,
gone. And our daytime trips - not listed above -
gone. The remaining (actually new) trains timed to reduce stock needs, and to meet the DfT's "SLC2" spec, and not to meet the needs of the area that the
service (interesting word
) should have
served.
I've learned a lot since those days, and I know many other have too. With a community hat on, I know that our community's eye wasn't on the ball as well as it should have been to say "oy!" earlier and more loudly. Local government, since reformed for much wider reasons, has changed dramatically; new constituency boundaries and Wiltshire
MPs▸ who look at all their stations and services, not just their local line stations to London. The DfT too - I know there are fears about the level of service not the minute detail in the new franchise, particularly raised for Bedwyn / Pewsey / Westbury in Wiltshire, but I also see the pieces coming into place for a proper linked network including (yes) the TransWilts, but also for the other lines with which it connects and where, in some cases, the investment for the future dwarfs what's needed (and may happen
) on the TransWilts. First and the other bidders are commercial companies; they need to make their best profit - and this time they'll be far better informed and they'll also know that they'll be far better supported - certainly in Wiltshire - than they imagined that they would be last time around. And - I hope - the system and the groundrules should / should have moved on somewhat so that the absurdity of "pulling" well loaded trains and then storing the stock in sidings will be seen as just a lesson of history. But - certainly at my home station - the effects of that history are still very much with us. I'm working out of my home town this week, and would have commuted by train if a service was available. As it is, I drove and sat in traffic jams as I went.
I've not really got a strong view on Ruth Kelly's decisions - I remain much more prickly about one of her predecessors who was asked on national radio about the TransWilts service. He didn't answer the question at all - he chose instead to talk about railway investment and how fantastic that was in improving services for areas up the West Coast main line which (I happened to know) served his constituency. I too was concerned when an unelected minister was appointed (Andrew Adonis), but I have to agree that - very quickly - I saw the merit in having a person who wasn't area-tied and who seemed to have so much else going for him too.
