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Bigger and better this year!

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2009-04-20 07:55:25 - Graham Ellis

The film Jaws was a classic ... but Jaws II didn't reach the same heights. I heard a lot about Oceans 11 but not so much about Oceans 12. And where, oh where, is Titanic 2

A really good film has all the director's best ideas thrown at it, leaving the crumbs for the sequel ... and the sequel's market is those who enjoyed the original - with people who missed the original unlikely to go along to see the sequel.

Which is why it is extraordinary that only halfway through our pledge campaign for an appropriate train service across Wiltshire, we're already just a few signature shy of the number we achieved over the whole period last year. How come we have bucked the sequel trend?

The current train service that links the largest urban areas in Wiltshire is crazy. A great gap from the 06:15 to the 18:45 southbound, and a similar northbound gap render it completely inappropriate. Through the day, you still see a railway line without passenger trains, parallel to a road that's snarled and jammed. And the stations are in (or close to) the town centres along the way for the most part - that's where people want to go, and where parking is short.

But other things have changed this year which make the sequel bigger than the original. There's been an economic downturn, and people don't want to be running two cars in the family any longer (I know I don't). Wiltshire has gone unitary, which means that the towns along the way are now far more closely linked than they were before. Salisbury, Chippenham, Trowbidge, Melksham and Warminster are the five largest population centres in the new authority, and the line connects all of them, together with that huge neighbour of Swindon, and Westbury from where connections are available to Reading, London, and the South West. And people are becoming more aware, too, of the need for businesses and areas to attract people in - to make themselves into destinations for work, for tourism ... and that to do so, good transport is needed - transport that allows an end to end journey to be integrated to give a total solution.

In 2006, 40% of our customers arrived by train, in the days that we had a more appropriate service. At the end of that year, the service was "revised" so that it not longer runs at appropriate times, and in 2007 just 4% of our customers arrived by train ... with many of THEM complaining that the 19:50 was far too late to leave after a course (the previous train at quarter past seven in the morning being far too early!). So I (and we) support the call for an improved service - indeed, I am hosting the web site and providing some of the technical backing.

I know it's a sequel ... but this is one of those rare cases where the sequel is bigger than the original. If you're a past customer ... if you're likely to be coming here ... if you travel in Wiltshire, please consider adding your name to the call for an appropriate service at:

http://www.transwilts.org.uk/pledge.html



Trowbridge to Swindon. 95 minutes by bus. 55 minutes in your car (and then you have to park). 35 minutes by train. You know it makes sense to provide the train!