Here we are on 1st January 2015, and I'm going to be very brave - or very foolish - and look ahead to what the year may bring for me, my family and my business - and for you, our readers, during this year. Some of these things are very "TransWilts" but other range widely over the rail network and beyond.
* Fares in January
Tomorrow morning, at 07:10, you should hear me in the traditional twice-a-year discussion about fare rises, on
BBC» Radio Wiltshire. If what I say is interesting enough and it's a quiet news day, I expect I'll be replayed from time to time (i.e. hour to hour)
* Route Utilisation Strategies
The Route Planning Consultations are due in very soon, looking at Network Rail's plans for the next periods up to 30 years hence.
* Senior Railcard
Very soon, both my partner and I will be able to travel on Senior Railcards, and I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time seeing places and so is she.
*
FoSBR» AGM▸ 23rd January, -
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=15016.0 . Come along, hear what this group has to say and offer them your support. They also seem to have me lined up to give a brief talk on how we've succeeded in Wiltshire, although I still think that we remain in the phase of having to work very hard to retain services.
* TransWilts AGM
30th January -
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=15014.0 . The TransWilts
CRP▸ is "growing up" and from tiny beginnings, we are not taken much more seriously with massive growth in the services we support last year. In order to have an appropriate structure for the future, we're hoping to vest the TransWilts CRP as an arm of the TransWilts Community Interest Company. Following on from this AGM, I'm expecting to see a far broader range of people involved in much of the work I've done up until now, and it's very much up to the agreement of the ongoing
CIC▸ as to my future role - diminished for sure, as I need to get back to running my business a bit more.
* Storms
We would be very lucky indeed to get away without some sort of damage to the railway network in our area at some point. I'm going to speculate on at least one "once in 30 years, so not worth special investment" type failure, but of course I can't predict when and where it will be.
*
TVMs▸ at Melksham and Trowbridge
A TVM was due to be installed by the end of 2014 at Melksham Station - well, I was there 6 hours before the end of the year and there was just a concrete plinth waiting - and there are more white lines on the platform which indicate that we're perhaps in for another dig. There's a machine due at Trowbridge too. NOTE FOR READERS - these machines will be card only, so there's no point in trying to break into them for cash! With the coming of TVMs, we have a major CRP opportunity to help people learn how to make best use of them.
* TravelWatch SouthWest
7th March 2015, Taunton. To be addressed by Claire Perry, Minister of State at the
DfT» with responsibiity for rail fares and franchising. Invite only meeting / one person per rail user group ... however, please let one of the team know if you would like to attend as a represntative / stakeholder / campaign group / technical expert and we can perhaps help with an intro
* TransWilts Link
21st March 2015. This is the event where public transport interested parties from across Wiltshire (journeys "in, to, from and through") the county get together with the purpose of learning from each other, co-ordinating requests, goals and aspirations, and informing financial and operational authorities of those combinations.
* Melksham Rail Link Bus
With the ending of the
LSTF▸ day to day grant funding at the end of March, the future of this service and of Connecting Wiltshire as a funded marketing operation need to be resolved. The rail link bus was initially intended as a pump primer with potential longer term feasabiity too, to stop-gap the lack of extra parking, lack of a bus stop at the top of Melksham Station approach, lack of co-ordination between regular service bus and train times, and the lack of station access from Foundry Close. All of these improvements remain outstanding, and a request to the portfolio holder at Wiltshire Council for clarification has met (thus far) with a worrying silence. I can foresee a need for some activity to ensure continued provision of station access relating to what had grown in just 9 months of operation to a usage rate of around 3,000 journeys on and off the train per annum.
* Purdah
Parliament disolves on 30th March, and from that point until after the election in May only limied political action will take palce. I expect we'll hear a lot of promises, though!
* Learning about what First will do for us
According to the
EU» 's directives, during March the DfT will be able to sign a further contract with First for the provision of services for a further period ... latest "gen" is that it will be for 3.5 years, from September 2015 to Spring 2019. I personally have some questions as to whether it will actually be signed, and how much we will learn at this point about the future.
* Thames Valley
I expect that we'll be discussing Thames Valley reliability and overcrowding issues during the early (and later too) part of 2015. It would take a minor miracle for the siganlling problems of the past few months to quickly eveporate, and I would suspect that the odd crew shortage, train failure and "person hit by train" will continue as well. One "person hit by train" is one too many ...
* Election
7th May 2015. Not just a rail thing, but something that may have the most profound effect on rail future. I feel too uninformed to predict the outcome - not only looking at the traditional parties, but also the potential for another (UKIP) to gain a significant foothold, and for the SNP to take suffienct a chunk in Scotland to hold a balance of power in
England UK▸ * New Summer Timetable
Sunday, 17th May will bring the summer timetable. We have strong hopes that the Sunday service on the TransWilts will be significantly amended. At present, a train under the LSTF banner runs every 3 hours, and there are two extra services northbound and one southbound from the
SLC▸ service. Other days of the week, services mesh sensibly but on Sundays they follow each other in quick succession - I've seen two trains at Westbury on either side of the island both "destination Swindon".
May is also the time that we will see any changes to Railcard and Rover prices
* Summat
30th May - Oh - can't tell you about this yet, and it's only provisional. But keep your diary clear!
* Melksham Carnival
18th July ... last year we distributed TransWilts literature to the crowds and I suspect we'll do the same this year. Concentration for 2015 is on attracting leisure traffic to the line and there will be various things like organised walks, beer runs and so forth. Cynically, numbers attending probably won't be massive but we know that the publicity reaches far and wide and the overal effect of this marketing is to bring lots of people on. Saw this in 2014 with "Weymouth Promotion" ... not many went to Weymouth but an awful lot learned about the line and made other journeys!
* Chaos in Summer
Box tunnel closed for six weeks. (rumour now says 7). East of Bath closed for 3 weeks (rumour now says 4). Lots of diversions, currently being argued between
FGW▸ and
NR» as to final detail due to quart-in-pint-pot issues on single track from Chippenham to Trowbridge. Interesting job getting commuters from West Wilts to Bath and Bristol. Also an opportunity if we know schedules in good time to encourage leisure trips on services that don't usuually run - e.g. though Swindon - Salisbury trains every 2 hours.
* Fares in September
Unless a new government changes it, we'll see the annual annuncement of rail fare rises and all the press coverage - to be repeated at the turn of the year when the changes actually come in to force.
* New Franchise in September
We can say "probably" to "almost certainly" First ... and by this point we'll know for sure rather more about what they're going to provide and for how long in the next period which should lead through the completion of electrification and (?) Crossrail starting and timetable recasts
*
ACoRP▸ awards
Thursday, 1st October, Torquay. A valuable event for Community Rail groups to attend, whether or not taking part / with any realistic chance in the annual awards.
* TravelWatch SouthWest
Saturday, 3rd October 2015
* TransWilts Link
Probably Saturday 24th October
* Looking forward to 2016 and beyond
The three year trial of the TransWilts service finishes on Saturday 10th December 2016. Although 'reassured' of a continuing service if the trial succeeds, there's potential for a new government to move goal posts, and indeed we see some signs that the current one is also interested in evaluating and omparing the service using different measure to those adopted thus far. I'm very thankful for the data gatherered in October 2014 as this will help inform our arguments and - make no mistake - we may have some strong argueing to do. Depending on government flavour and the franchsie that starts in September 2015 and electrification progress, there will be a great deal up for grabs in December timetable changein in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and I would expect these to be massive subject ongoing
* Santa Specials
Provisonally Sunday 13th December 2015
* Boxing Day services
Our forum has boiled up with talk of train services over Christmas and the new year, with a particular emphaisis on discussions about Boxing Day. I don't know what will run on 26th December 2015, but I do know that we'll probably have some very interesting discussions about it here!
* Chaos on 27th December
I can predict with a fair degree of certainly that there will be a lot of engineering work over Christmas, and that some of it will overrun - in all truth, I would not want Network Rail's job and I see no pratical way that they would be able to hand everything back on time, without overruns, unless they scaled back the programmes ... calling, then, for more and longer closures or reductions of train services. This Christmas, overruns at Paddington, Kings Cross and Southampton - next Christmas, bets now being taken
* New Year's honours
And come 30th / 31st December new years honours will be announced. The rail industry has some superb people who go over and above the call of duty, and really know there stuff, and deserve the honours. A pity that some of them seem to have got caught up in the flack that's flying around at this time of year about Christmas stoppages, overrunning engineering, and January fare rises.
There you go - some of my thoughts for what we may see this year. Please feel free to fill in any gaps, and enjoy 2015!
Other ACoRP events for some diaries:Designated Community Rail Line Seminar Mon 16th-Tues 17th March 2015 Nottingham
National Station Adoption Seminar Wed 3rd June 2015, Manchester
Melksham Railway Development Group Meetings:6 March - Melksham Town Hall, 19:30
15 May - AGM
3 July Summer prps
4 September
20 November - Santa wrapping?
West Wilts Rail Usr Group meetings:29th January, Trowbridge - guest speakers Roland Anderson from Network Rail and Jon Morgan FGW Project Manager in Bath (Poster says "Jacky Day" for Network Rail, web site as stated here)
24th March 2015 "we are holding our AGM - which is normally kept brief and followed by a talk by Methodist minister, Rev David Hardy who is a railway chaplain living in Bristol"
I predict that although their constition says that meeting spread between all West Wilts towns, 24th March will be Bradford-on-Avon and later meetings in the year will be Warminster and Trowbridge. Pity - would love to see the in Melksham, which is larger that Bradford-on Avon and a bit bigger that Warminster.
TransWilts Passenger Counts:February and October
