It's ten years ago this month that Lisa pointed out to me a letter in the local newspaper telling us that we had just missed the consultation about train services in our part of Wiltshire for the next franchise, and that the suggestion that had been made in the consultation was a cut to just 2 services each way per day. A stunned silence followed (a brief one, I may add) ... and those who know me will realise just how shocked I must have been. Very rapidly, I found friends already actively campaigning who agreed that it didn't seem a very sensible new service - Gordon, Peter, David, John and others and between us - and with others too (and too many to mention) we've worked to evaluate, have provided, and make work an appropriate service.
It's just one extra carriage we've got ... but the effect of the campaign and follow up has been significant and positive, and we've entered the campaign into the RailFuture award. The citation:
The campaign to improve the service between Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge, the three largest towns in the historic county of Wiltshire outside Swindon, followed the decision to reduce the number of trains on the route to a token two each day at times which were inconvenient for most users.
The drive began with making people aware of the current provision, then establishing what would be more useful and sustainable, getting that service in place and most importantly keeping it once it started.
Over 70 volunteers worked with local authorities, the train operator and other groups to win a three year trial of eight trains each way with a target 120,000 journeys a year by the third year. Door to door leafleting, social media presence, media publicity and other events saw this target smashed inside the first year with current figures around 230,000 trips a year. Longer trains are now planned from May 2017 with a further upgrade the following year.
Work has been carried at out Melksham station with improved waiting facilities, a ticket machine and additional car parking.
Having won the additional services, the emphasis has been very much on retaining and enhancing it
The back submission describing what we've done is at
http://atrebatia.info/railfuture2015_5.pdfAnd here's an illustration to show what a difference we're talking about:
Edit to add "already actively campaigning" to make it clear this was ongoing from before 10 years ago - indeed Melksham station was a Beeching closure and a reopening in 1985. In those days the metrics or justification allowed that to work purely on a peak service.
