A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - however you spend them and whatever makes you merry - to all members, lurkers, casual readers, and to the moderator and admin team who have done so much for the forum over the year. THANK YOU - you are the people who make the forum.This year has seen the majority of longer distance services switch from
HST▸ to
IET▸ , electric operation extend outwards from London as far as Swindon, and Thames Turbos take over most services on a number of routes out of and based at Bristol. We have seen a record level of major engineering stoppages, including the Berks and Hants for 50 days, Bristol Temple Meads for a major public holiday weekend, and Filton Bank and the Severn Beach line for a major period while 2 tracks were increased back up to 4. All of these changes - and their teething troubles and side effects, and member's views on the current and potential future changes have helped us keep a very active forum. But actually I suspect that the forum would and will remain active long after these works and the lesser program for next year are completed.
My personal interest in rail has been sparked by the TransWilts line and the need for an appropriate service for passengers between Westbury and Swindon, and the intermediate towns of Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham. From an unusable (to all intents and purposes) service that was running up to 5 years ago, "we" have moved to a thin but usable service now - one with significant gaps as the single train shuttles up and down trying to be all things to all men and women, and ceasing mid-evening because that's when funding for driver and conductor shifts runs out. Passenger numbers announced a couple of weeks ago were disappointing - but did not come as a shock. It's simply not possible to grow traffic when your train is so full and standing that the train manager has to walk along the outside, knocking on the windows and indicating to passengers to squeeze up in the aisle, nor will traffic grow when you have a very high cancellation rate due to [[[ well - whatever the cause ]]] and lots of trains replaced by buses which, being slower, abysmally fail to connect. I'm actually surprised that we've done as well as we have. Looking forward to the next set of figures - to be published December 2019 - I anticipate a performance which once again may have a lower growth rate than we would like to see, but never the less is good compared to other places around. Much of this reduced forecast is due to what's happened already - we've lost the best part of 50 days through Newbury engineering works and are set to loose a further 12 over Christmas and the New Year, and although reliability has somewhat improved of late, there are still multiple days almost every week where multiple services are lost.
Looking forward to 2019, though, TransWilts things have improved for the future. The one car trains (which we dearly loved because they provided us that vital foothold back on to the track of a passenger service) have been replaced by 2 and 3 car trains which have the capacity for growth, and at times they are running there are already indications that the growth has indeed started - the trains may look quiet, but count the passengers and they would no longer fit - even uncomfortably - into a single 153. The platform at Melksham (along with one at Trowbridge and both at Dilton Marsh) have been lengthened to make operation much easier - no longer do trains of over 1 carriage have to pass dozens of passengers though a single door at Melksham. And the new trains can be timed for a 90 mph top speed rather that 75 mph - at this point making the service a better timekeeper, but with speed up potential once the reliability is back on target.
The TransWilts Community Rail Partnership that's supported the TransWilts in its early growth has changed too. A new Community Rail Officer, paid for longer hours and with a professional background has replaced the previous incumbent - "part of our restructuring to increase the future effectiveness of our
CRP▸ " says chair Paul Johnson in his press release. Personally, I would agree the need for a change in skills as an organisation moves from being a community start-up to a more traditional CRP with a board entirely of current and past local government representatives, but I would have changed the word "increase" to "ensure". The development with a team with professional fund raising, marketing, graphic art, people and organisational training is logical, but I don't share the view that the previous team was ineffective. Just look at the 2013 to 2018 growth compared to the 2001 to 2006 growth when an increased service was last tried. I look forward to seeing significant activity and excellent results from the TransWilts CRP through 2019, and that with local community partnership help which I hope they will embrace once they get their restructuring fully operational.
Melksham remains a special case. Unique amongst stations in the area, passenger numbers are not in a "steady state" for the area served; passenger journeys per annum per head of population remain abysmal. The train service remains poor in frequency and reliability. The station access and facilities aren't great - the longer platform is just one step. And for the first new years of the "trial" service, people could not commit long term to it, in case it didn't make the grade. Onward service beyond Westbury is largely by way of connection - and some connections remain very poor indeed. Through services - probably to Southampton atone end and perhaps to Oxford at the other, and an increase to an hourly service would (or rather will) do wonders. And with this very local and gappy service that's hardly been reliable, there remains a lack of it being part of the daily lives of as many people as it should in the community, and with a need for the old traditional Community Rail treatment thats worked so well so far and elsewhere, but which is somewhat being superseded by the
DfT» 's new community rail strategy which the TransWilts CRP is embracing. Being room for both approaches, expect to see much more in 2019 from the Melksham Rail User Group - which has been around for over 20 years, predating TransWilts, with marketing and events of its own at least once a year. Their web site - with a fresh lick of paint - is at
http://www.mrug.org.uk and there's a Facebook page and Twitter feed too.
The Coffee Shop has been around for a dozen years, and we've had discussions this autumn about the way forward. The outcome of a
CCIF▸ grant bid to look at putting us on to a stable footing for the next dozen years is awaited, and (yes) a "risk assessment" has been done to ask "what if we don't get the funding". Over Christmas as the New Year, major site work is planned and I'm hopeful but not guaranteeing a new look for the new year, with software that's robust for the next decade rather that relying on deprecated software. Fortunately, I have a parallel server and an ability to step back / carry on as need be if it doesn't work well - unlike our friends in the railway industry who only have a single pathway available to them and are only able to work on the pathway in a very disruptive manner.
Over the last years, I have travelled quite widely to rail meetings and events; just in the last few months I've started looking around and noting who's a coffee shop member and / or reader. And I've noted that you (our members / lurkers) are present in noticeable proportion - say 10% to 15% - at meetings around the region. We clearly fill many gaps, and as we look forward with our new constitution(al) plans, we need to look at the cohesive whole, the whole picture as far as being strong advocates of public transport and encouraging both current and future passenger support and provision working within the current system as well as looking to help tune that system to help the passenger, and new / potential passenger too. All sounds very much like community rail as many of the team have done it in Wiltshire until now, but on a wider scale, doesn't it? The DfT's move from designation to accreditation of bodies come next April provides the potential for our body, when constituted, to be a forerunner in this area. And that will absolutely be additional strings to the bow, which will support the ongoing forum activities. Personally and family wise we are slowing down a little - the effects of time, but also a couple of clouds on the horizon, which we hope we will be able to help blow over. Part of the reason for the changes is to help ensure that the forum and other activities are not tied to or limited by the time taken with dealing with these issues.
2019 will be a different year to 2018, I'm sure, on transport too. And everything looks like it's falling into place for both the rail industry, the local group in Melksham, the Coffee Shop, and others to start reaping the benefits of the investments we've all made this year and before, for the ongoing passenger benefits - and not limiting only to
GWR▸ 's trains but other trains and buses in the area too - connectional and indeed separate journeys. i
The Coffee Shop will remain online over Christmas and the holiday period. We have a service on 25th and 26th December, even if the trains and buses don't. There may be some short breaks (I'll try to warn ahead), especially in the early hours, and I would recommend that you keep copies of major posts you make just in case I have to revert to backups once or twice - teething problems on software change are not unknown, just as they're not unknown on the railways.
Lisa and I, Gypsy and Billy, kids and grandkids are celebrating Christmas tomorrow rather than on 25th ... major work today to make the home child-proof.
Whenever and however you celebrate, have a good one, and thank you for all your inputs and help over the year and years, and in anticipation of years to come. See you ... in the new year, if not before! This forum is, truly, 24×7.
