Rail services under threat - Swindon, Melksham ... and Newquay and Bicester too

Last night, we attended a meeting of the Melksham Railway Development Group.

Our train service is under threat; the secondary rail service from Swindon to Southampton is slated for withdrawal under the new Greater Western Franchise. In its place are just two trains a day with a proposal, so its seems, to run at least one of them at the time that's convenient to the railway operators rather than at a time that passenger demand calls for them.

Other cross country rail journeys are under threat too, but not to the same degree. The stopping train from Par to Newquay is to be cut by a third - from three journeys to two per day, and the new franchise only has to provide two trains a day from Oxford to Bicester via Islip. The regular Westbury to Taunton service that was introduced last year and seems busy is to be cut; there will be just three trains a day available if you want to make this journey, and the overnight sleeper from London Paddington to Plymouth and Penzance is for the chop too.

What are the government's intentions for the railway? A high level output statement is to be published in the near future and perhaps we'll hear. On the current bid, the stipulations are that the bidders should maximise the payment they make to the treasury, and run as punctually as possible. Requirements for services, especially on some of the stopping / secondary services that are vital to the transport needs of the communities they serve, seem to get scant regard. The consultation around the invitation to tender for these rail services was run in parallel with the invitation, so although the public consultation was (sort of) undrtaken it can have had no effect what so ever on decisions, and the Strategic Rail Authority which drew up the ITT has now been wound up and the conclusion of the process is to be carried out by bureacrats at the Department for Transport in London.

Regular readers here may have already found our "save the train" web site ... if you've not been there, I encourage you to make a visit. Train use has risen by nearly 8 times in 5 years, and we calculate a flow of some 100000 passengers on the line annualy. At this stage, the best way to help encourage an appropriate service on these secondary routes is to write, positivley, to ministers such as Derek Twigg and Alastair Darling at the Department for Transport, to the franchise planners and directors such as Roger Jones, John Gilbert and Paul McCarthay at the same address (76 Marcham Street, London SW1P 4DR) and to your MP and other representatives.

London is a long way from any crosscountry train services. The train from Melksham to Swindon takes 25 minutes, but by road the journey is double that. By bus (the alternative suggested), the journey involves at least one change and takes over an hour. Civil Servants at the Department for Transport just don't realise that it's just not sensible to leave Melksham (and the other communities I have mentioned) in the midst of a giant traffic jam.

Traffic has grown 35% in the last year. Another 1000 homes have just been approved for Melksham. The county records office is being built by the station in Chippenham. The roads are getting busier. Fuel prices are rising. And yet I understand that the new franchise is based on growth of 1 to 2% per annum in rail traffic. I don't know other lines, but I know ours; that forecast is plain daft ... unless you make it a self-fulfilling prophesy by forcing people off the trains by withdrawing them!
(written 2005-11-05, updated 2006-06-05) 8296

Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles

G101 - Well House Consultants - Getting to and from Melksham
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Z501 - Public Transport - Rail
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  [2026] Melksham Climate Friendly Group - (2009-02-05)
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  [1044] Call for appropriate train services - Swindon, Bristol, Bath, West Wilts, Severn Beach etc - (2007-01-18)
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