Dft seeks views proposed approach for securing next Great Western franchise

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Two and a half hours to go ... respond NOW if you want to 

[grahame]

I think I've become something of a specialist ... reading various inputs to the consultation, helping to write one for the TransWilts CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership), looking ahead ... and yet a quiet thread from most of our readers.   My inputs are at http://atrebatia.info/dft_resp.pdf for the TransWilts, and I hope I got them right.   They were formulated by a number of community and local government members of our team and backed up by individual submissions from some of our members too.    To all those who assisted me, and to those wrote in too, THANK YOU.

So - what now?

No matter who's running the trains (and how) in forthcoming years, we're still helping building traffic on the TransWilts line.  It was a pleasure to be invited to the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Stakeholder's Conference yesterday and to see Horace Prickett and David Phillips from Wiltshire Council present the TransWilts and the early rather good initial results from their LSTF^▸ (Local Sustainable Transport Fund) supported activities, and from First Great Western's help, on the service.   Both FGW and Wiltshire Council have really pulled hard, and the two named gentlemen and others have done so much to help.   Talk is of 160,000 journeys this year, against an initial target of 45,000 and a third year target of 108,000.   Normally I wouldn't quote such a high estimated figure, erring on the side of caution to avoid making a rod for David and Horace's backs.   But actually it's realistic.   We've got to help get people on the TransWilts trains this summer now.   It was also really good hear how pleased Mathew Golton, bid Director of FGW, is with the results - singled out later - and how so much of that comes down to a working relationship between the parties in the rail industry and local government that was unheard of just a few years ago.

We're certainly not going to be in a steady state, though - so in addition to encouraging train use this summer and next summer, we need to go on and ask "what next".    Some of that is the side effect of the big  schemes around the area, some of it is the effect of growing numbers so that we'll run out of seats some time, and some is to do with changing needs in the wider area.   The "line plan" section of the CRP report mentioned above alludes to protecting certain assets for future (re)use, and to some joined up thinking and services, and as well as the short term train-filling tactics and the medium term next-franchise-period inputs we're tuning our thoughts to longer term strategy.  And yesterday was a further excellent networking opportunity to do that.  To start looking to having shovel-ready idea to dig into once a green button is pressed.

[John R]

Two and a half hours to go ... respond NOW if you want to 

Thanks for the reminder. I managed to put something in, covering two points, one of which was the Transwilts service frequency.

[grahame]

Two and a half hours to go ... respond NOW if you want to 

Thanks for the reminder. I managed to put something in, covering two points, one of which was the Transwilts service frequency.

    Thank you

[grahame]

As well as having copies of a number of TransWilts responses to the Franchise, I've also been copied on responses from almost every other CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) in the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) area, and I'm delighted to say that they all follow much the same lines - looking at a big growth in ridership and capacity issues, at the success (and frustrations) of community rail and how it ca be nurtured to be even more effective, and at concerns over collecting fares from everyone who's travelling and the high proportion who don't pay - whether through deliberate evasion, or simply because they have no opportunity.