Article quote from Councillor Graham Francis :


Remind me again , when did Thames Trains go out of existance...........

Apparently the idea has got encouraging responses from the rail companies:

http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/search/display.var.2135822.0.town_wants_a_new_rail_link.php

Let's see: Hungerford sees about 200,000 rail journes each year with a population of 5,000. If Marlborough (pop. 8,000) uses it just as well, then that would be 320,000 (ish) rail journies per year. Now a return ticket from Bedwyn to Reading costs about £10.00 and for Pewsey about £11.00 and expect from Marlborough to be in that region. So 320K time 10 gives 3.2 million pounds a year leaving 11 years to make it up. Of course, there are several problems with this: 1) Expect the number to slowly climb 2) This was using the cheapest off-peak fares - so expect it to be higher 3) fares will probably go up and of course 4) the taxpayer would be paying a majority of this.

No, but the few there are are rich and influential, and would quite happily pay a premium rate fare. Marlborough is after all an extremely affluent area.

Compare this to another Wiltshire town, one which includes recognised areas of social deprivation - let's use Melksham as an example. Now which one suddenly looks the more likely to receive massive investment in it's rail infrastructure (at public expense)?

Cynical? Moi?