I was sad to report the passing of our member dking - Tim Pearce - a couple of months ago. I'm writing now in tribute.
Tim passed away at the age of 73, from cancer he had been fighting for many years. He joined us here in March 2008, and last posted in March 2013 - just 30 posts in that time but with far more input to local rail - and to the TransWilts element of local rail - than casual readers can possibly imagine.
Tim was an active, committed and inspirational member of the co-operative movement. He was a strong advocate of mutualising the fragmented rail system, organising a conference on social enterprise and the railways. I remember that meeting in Swindon well. What seemed ideals rather than pragmatism played an important role in the formation and development of Go-op, of which he was a director and chair.
Whilst I might say that Go-op started off from an idealistic base, the business case of its route flows, and a route which lay uncherished by the franchise syste were together a "class act". Only today, my wife asked me about heading north from here, only yesterday we were bantering about a Swindon to Oxford service, and only the other week South West Trains put forward serious proposals for passenger services from Yeovil Junction - proposed as a southern terminal and base - via Pen Mill to Westbury. The operational case stood up too, and I remember meetings with Tim and his team of railway professionals too with our community's "Save the Train" operation.
Perhaps it's turned out that a co-operative open access operation was bleeding edge (just too advanced) rather than leading edge, and as seems all too common in the rail business novel ideas take far longer to come to fruition - if they do - that the less exciting (and perhaps less advantageous) ones. And so it was that Go-op seems to have stalled, and other opportunities have come along that have perhaps overtaken it.
The
LSTF▸ bid, and the TransWilts
CRP▸ that follows, were both forumate to work with "an operator" rather than any particular one - and that could have been Stagecoach or Go-op rather than First. In October and November 2013, one of the final identified risks to the TransWilts trial starting was an appeal by Go-op against the granting of paths on the basis it would preclude the paths they required / had applied for, and I can just imagine the turmoil this must have brought for Tim as it brought to those many of us who really apprciated the ideals and wanted them to work, but yet we had to be pragmatic too.
Tim Pearce was a lovely man too. Mervyn Wilson, chief executive and principal of the Co-operative College, pays tribute to Tim Pearce ^A compulsive co-operator ^ he always looked for ways to help make the world a better place, through actions as well as words. Tim was really one of the good guys.^ And that's how I remember him to - clearly ill when I last saw him at a meeting above Green Park station in Bath; a friendly and welcoming face in a sea of people I didn't know and a chat even though our tactics pulled us apart as we headed for the same strategic goal.
Tim - you may not have won your battle for the TransWilts - but you helped us win the war. I salute you for what you did, for what you believed in, and as a true gent. You are sorely missed.
Other tributes at
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=11010.msg173089#msg173089http://www.go-op.coop/workspace/uploads/files/a_tribute_to_tim_pearce.pdfhttps://party.coop/2015/03/09/tributes-to-tim-pearce/http://www.thenews.coop/94185/news/co-operatives/a-tribute-to-tim-pearce/edits to correct typos
