Background: The E-Petition to 10 Downing Street asking for an appropriate train service linking Swindon and Westbury and other routes has now closed, with many more signatures than anticipated.

The current "TransWilts" service has only two poorly timed trains per day but links the largest towns in Wiltshire, and runs through county seat Trowbridge.

Here are the details and answers to "where do we go from here"? This information may all be published, along with my contact details.



* Ran for three weeks until 7th February on the Prime Minister's official E-Petition web site, http://petitions.pm.gov.uk ...

* Signed by 1,703 individuals, from Nicholas Abbott to Sarah Young. See http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/signers.html for a full list

* Signatures include eight MPs (Conservative, Lib Dem and Labour members), five MEPs (also including UKIP) and at least 27 councillors at various tiers of local government.

* Signatures also include transport industry specialists, railway trades union officials and members, prospective parliamentary candidates and other well known names such as the actress Jenny Agutter.

* When the petition closed, it ranked at No. 57 out of 2,772 petitions on the Prime Minister's web site in terms of the number of signatures gathered. It was No. 8 out of more than 400 relating to Transport and Infrastructure, and the top petition on any railway / light rail / bus (domestic public transport) issue.

* "Serious" petitions with more than 100 signatures get reviewed by the Prime Minister's office and are answered by email to everyone who signed up, either by that office or an appropriate agency. No time scale is given, but looking back to previous petitions it's likely that an answer may already be in preparation and might come quite soon.

* As a private individual who started this petition in my out-of-hours time (I have a full time job too!), I'm delighted with the response. When I started the petition, I felt that 500 names was a realistic target and that 1,000 would be a miracle. Remember, 1,683 people have actually taken a series of actions (sign and confirm) to lend their support to a localised cause.

* I also administer the "Save The Train" web site, campaigning for an appropriate service on the Swindon to Westbury (and on to Salisbury) rail route - theTranswilts - where updates are available. Passengers on other First Great Western lines also have an inappropriate train service which was imposed last December, and have asked me to help with similar discussion forums - these are now starting up at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop ...

* On the Swindon to Westbury line, I have been heartened by local support, and by news from First Great Western that they're looking at timetabling a train to run every two or three hours on the line. I am also encouraged by a letter via my MP from Tom Harris, the Transport Minister, saying that he'll consider requests for additional support from First Great Western if and when they approach his office.

* With a change in the rules for "Community Rail Partnerships", there is now scope for the D f T to designate the "TransWilts" service as community rail. And in any case the petition illustrates huge local support across West Wilts and the wiser area for the service. I am proposing to hold an meeting to look forward to ongoing campaigning and to support the service as follows:
Date: Monday, 5th March 2007, at 19:30
Venue: Well House Manor, 48 Spa Road, Melksham SN12 7NY
Transport: We can arrange lifts off the 19:08 arrival from
Swindon and onward transport afterwards.
Accommodation: The hotel has limited rooms available overnight




"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to provide a reliable train service with adequate capacity at times that travellers wish to make journeys from Swindon to Westbury, Bristol to Severn Beach, Portsmouth and Weymouth to Cardiff, Taunton to Cheltenham, Swindon to Cheltenham. This includes all intermediate stations and journeys in both directions."

Graham Ellis
Well House Consultants, 404 The Spa, Melksham, Wilts
http://www.wellho.net graham@wellho.net
+44 (0) 1225 708225 (phone) +44 (0) 1225 707126 (fax)

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