TransWilts CRP, CIC and Melksham RUG
Public and sustainable transport in Wiltshire

Home Accessibility GWR site Facebook The Mouth Forum Resources Training About Us Contact
 
For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
Train Online article - ACoRP / TransWilts introduction

Our community railway line can learn so much from other community railway lines - see what they have done, listen to what has worked for them and what hasn't, and adopt best practise, piggy-backing on the experience of others ... while at the same time taking a fresh look and trying out new things.


So we're a member of ACoRP - the Association of Community Rail Partnerships. We acheived quite a bit before we were admitted as members (and that was quite a stressful process, with high hurdles including prior acheivements to be jumped), but as members we gain links to experts and other CRPs and the Department for Transport which are extremely valuable in helping us be even more effective.


As well as listeing to others in ACoRP, part of the role of a member is to inform other CRPs and let them learn from our best practise, to get in touch with other CRPs in their area for mutual or group working, etc - and to aid this, ACoRP produce an online magazine called "Train Online" ... following on from this post is our introuctory submission for the forthcoming issue.


The Swindon to Westbury service, being fostered by the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership, saw an increase from 2 to 8 trains each way per day last December, funded under an LSTF grant for a trial 3 year period. The service runs from Swindon to Westbury via Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge, with the TransWilts trains being the only regular passenger trains on the single track section from Chippenham to Trowbridge.


With trains from Swindon at 06:12 and 18:44, the previous service wasn  [82][ac] Ä t attractive to many customers, and there were just under 60 journeys a day made on the section unique to this service, with few of them getting on or off the train at Melksham, in spite of it being a town of some 24,000 people. The target in the first year is to raise the journeys on that section to 135 per day, and up to 320 per day by the end of the trial.


Wiltshire Council, First Great Western and the local volunteers have all been playing a major role in promoting the extra services (run by a single carriage class 153 train), and in promoting similar enhancements on Saturdays and Sundays too, and recent counts have recorded weekday passenger numbers just over 400 (regular working day) and 500 (half term).


Getting people onto the trains - especially from Melksham - is all about getting people to try something they  [82][ac] Ä ve not done before as in essence it  [82][ac] Ä s a service change that now meets a new market. So we  [82][ac] Ä ve been promoting widely - local press, on line via Facebook, door to door leafletting, and even walking in the Melksham Carnival, which we did on 12th July aided by friends from FOSBR (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways). They all arrived on the new train service (of course!) and the theme of our group was   [82][ac][c5][93]things you can take on the train  [82][ac][c2][9d]. We had pushchair, wheelchair, cycles, dogs, and suitcases with us - people from child-in-buggy right through to pensioner! And we handed out specially printed timetables with a selection of day out ideas and prices too.


Summer is the time that holiday-area community lines are busiest, but we  [82][ac] Ä re not really a holiday line. Indications are that many of our 400 to 500 journeys are daily commutes, and with people moving home and / or job as they can do so. We  [82][ac] Ä re displacing road traffic too, and although there  [82][ac] Ä s free parking at Melksham station, it  [82][ac] Ä s turned out that we  [82][ac] Ä re pretty green - we have a free commuter rail link bus from the further suburbs to the station in the morning (and it waits for the trains in the evening if they  [82][ac] Ä re delayed!) and lots of people are walking. But the story  [82][ac] Ä s not just about Melksham   [82][ac][c2]æ Trowbridge to Swindon is now direct (no dogleg via Bath Spa), faster and cheaper. And the direct train relieves overcrowding on the service into Bath, meaning that people are not being denied boarding so often due to overcrowding at Bradford-on-Avon.


A real win-win for the people of Wiltshire, and for the economy of the area. Even business visitors from London to the tyre factory in Melksham have started coming by train ...


Pictures:


1. Melksham Carnival, 12th July - the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership group passes the crowds lining the road



2. Melksham Carnival, 12th July - in Melksham Town Centre. Our group composed totally people and things you could take on the train



3. Our   [82][ac][c5][93]Out of Town  [82][ac][c2][9d] contingent - arrived at Melksham Station at 15:00 on 12th July for a talk on the Wiltshire, Somerset and Weymouth Railway and to walk in the carnival parade.

(written 2014-07-25, updated 2014-07-26)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Z406 - TransWilts Community Rail Partnership
  [3881] Wiltshire Public Transport User Group co-ordination - (2012-10-05)
  [3986] Rail services in Wiltshire - up in the air? We need to say what is best required. - (2013-01-20)
  [4142] Passenger survey at Chippenham - report and pictures - (2013-07-24)
  [4148] Special General Meeting, Adoption of Constitution for TransWilts Community Rail Partnership - (2013-08-01)
  [4160] Bank Holiday Monday - pictures of a great train trip to Weymouth - (2013-08-27)
  [4163] TransWilts Community Rail Partnership - formally constituted - (2013-09-01)
  [4191] Getting people to and from Melksham Station - not 20 but 700 times a day - (2013-10-12)
  [4194] TransWilts Link - meeting notes from 19th October - (2013-10-20)
  [4196] Official - Trowbridge and Melksham to London train improvements - (2013-10-22)
  [4198] New trains for 2014 - Swindon to Westbury. Meetings Melksham, Swindon, Trowbridge, Chippenham and Westbury - (2013-10-24)
  [4218] A THANK YOU to those who have brought the new train service to fruition - (2013-12-06)
  [4219] TransWilts train services - up from 2 to 8 per day - (2013-12-09)
  [4225] Melksham Resident? Commuter? Save yourself 2000 pounds and 100 hours in 2014, and have a better journey! - (2013-12-20)
  [4229] Thin end of the wedge - plan to be thicker in 2014 - (2013-12-26)
  [4243] Taking Greyhounds and Lurchers to London for the day - (2014-02-23)
  [4284] Talk and walk to promote train service - Melksham Carnival - (2014-07-11)
  [4287] TransWilts CRP - walking in Melksham Carnival - (2014-07-13)
  [4288] Some questions on how our Community Rail Partnership works - (2014-07-13)
  [4309] Even in the dark of night, the train comes bearing passengers - (2014-09-28)
  [4313] Moving community rail support from amateur to professional - (2014-11-16)
  [4328] Folk music train, Westbury to Swindon round trip, 14th December 2014 - (2014-11-24)
  [4343] Politics and the railway the connects Wiltshire - (2014-12-06)
  [4351] A little thing can make a big difference - (2014-12-13)
  [4353] Celebration pictures, year 1 - (2014-12-15)
  [4362] What a difference a year makes - (2014-12-23)
  [4371] Why are people using the TransWilts? - (2014-12-29)
  [4397] TransWilts / Press and Publicity report for AGM / 30th January 2015 - (2015-01-17)
  [4424] Looking Forward - TransWilts Community Rail Partnership and TransWilts CIC - (2015-02-12)
  [4435] Images of our rail promotion campaign - (2015-02-21)
  [4463] Rail Conference, Nottingham - (2015-03-16)
  [4467] Neighbourhood Plan - travel and transport thoughts - (2015-03-29)
  [4494] Monday to Friday / TransWilts train times from 18 May to 11th December 2015 - (2015-05-17)
  [4497] Around the world from Melksham - (2015-05-25)
  [4500] The TransWilts Community Intergrated Transport Corridor - (2015-05-29)
  [4510] Learning from the others - Community Rail - (2015-07-12)
  [4512] The Weymouth Wizard - Saturdays in August from Wiltshire - (2015-07-31)
  [4513] Yesterday, Weymouth - (2015-08-02)
  [4568] Moderation - and the tendency to over-moderate - (2015-11-02)
  [4601] Management view - TransWilts and transport at the end of 2015 - (2015-12-25)
  [4612] TransWilts - robust these days - no longer the first service to be cancelled - (2016-01-03)
  [4638] TransWilts Community Interest Company AGM - 13 Feb 2016, Swindon - (2016-02-05)
  [4647] On the problems of a printed train timetable - (2016-02-15)
  [4688] Melksham Station - as at May 2016 - Part 5 (services and prices) - (2016-05-30)
  [4695] Melksham Rail Development Group becoming Melksham Rail Users Group - (2016-06-21)
  [4704] Three months in community rail pictures - (2016-08-27)
  [4706] Melksham trial train service is to be made permanent - (2016-10-02)
  [4726] TransWilts Partner Update for Melksham Area Board - (2016-11-07)
  [4739] A year of changes for Lisa and Graham Ellis, and Well House - (2017-05-27)


Back to
National Express replaced by train and by Megabus from Chippenham to London
Previous and next
or
Horse's mouth home
Forward to
The Horse is back!
Some other Articles
A longer Python ... training course
A bright new gem - updated Ruby training
Certification
The Horse is back!
Train Online article - ACoRP / TransWilts introduction
National Express replaced by train and by Megabus from Chippenham to London
It may be cheaper to buy in bulk
Reaction in Radstock to new First bus prices
4759 posts, page by page
Link to page ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 at 50 posts per page


This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

Link to Ezine home page (for reading).
Link to Blogging home page (to add comments).

You can Add a comment or ranking to this page

© WELL HOUSE CONSULTANTS LTD., 2024: 48 Spa Road • Melksham, Wiltshire • United Kingdom • SN12 7NY
PH: 01144 1225 708225 • EMAIL: info@wellho.net • WEB: http://www.wellho.net • SKYPE: wellho

PAGE: http://www.wellho.net/mouth/4291_Tra ... ction.html • PAGE BUILT: Sun Oct 11 16:07:41 2020 • BUILD SYSTEM: JelliaJamb