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A time to be brave? We should ask for what is best for our area.

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2011-01-16 21:01:12 - Graham Ellis

I don't like asking for things. And when I ask for something - especially something that someone else is going to have to work at or pay for, I've a natutal tendency to ask for a minimum. Many of us are like that - and so it's been that, in our striving for an appropriate train service, we've compromised.

• We've only asked for some movement towards an appropriate level - what we believe is just enough to tip the balance from a current service that's too thin to succeed to one that should grow (but frankly wouldn't do half as much for the area as a proper, appropriate service).

• We've used our own time, and at our own expense, to go along the way, rather than asking people to help fund us or to pay for certain expert work to be done.

• We've accepted "perhaps next year" far too many times, and not pressed our case with people and parties busy with other irons, whether or not those other irons are important, or simply on squeakier wheels than ours.

For all of our minimalist approach, we've drawn considerable support. We've moved the TransWilts Rail line from being a obscure and unknown link - even between some of the communities it serves - to a line that's been looked at by the likes of Network Rail and Wilsthire Council, and evaluated (in overview) as justifying an hourly service each way, based on some rather stringent criteria that have felled other proposals, and (even without the oxygen of sponsored publicity) we attracted over 750 supporters in 2010 (see right), each of whom took the time and trouble to visit and sign up on our website, fill in a short questionaire, and confirm their signature by email. (Click [here] or on the image to see the complete list of names - this image is just the first page!).

The support is all the more impressive when you analyse people's answers to the questions we asked. Over 300 make journeys in Wiltshire most days. Over 200 travel in the county from "time to time". And over 150 make journeys "most weeks". Less than 80 only travel rarely, and only a handful didn't answer. Journeys tend to be return trips (especially for people who travel on most days), and so that means that our supporters make over 150,000 journeys per annum ((306 x 220 + 153 x 40 + 232 x 10 + 73) x 2). That's not a claim that we would bring that many journeys to the TransWilts Rail line - we didn't ask that question to avoid subjective and wishful answers - but it is a very strong show of support indeed from the community for a more usable train service.

Now is the time to be brave, to ask for what the area requires, and the tools with which to achieve it and make it a success.

Having written that, I feel a curious weight off my shoulders. No more skulking around to keep the thing low key; no more apologist for the fact that someone's going to have to do a bit of work to make it happen, but a proud "let's do it". And that's because the time is now right. Where we started without political support, we now have that support both in Westminster and (very significantly) in Wiltshire. We have the support of bigger businesses in the area, as well as smaller ones. And we've now got a very much better understanding with the companies and other organisations in the rail industry, building up a mutual respect and working relationship with them as we have learned not only about rail travel and transport, but also about the motivational elements that effect everyone. We won't be skulking around any more, we won't be mimimalising and, curiously, I think that everyone who's involved is greatly relieved.

Let's get the job done. Let's gather the tools, and work together for public Transport along the TransWilts corridor that connects communities. We have rail experts looking at the rail side. We have business people and organisations looking at the business side. We have various local and wider governmental people looking at the financial and economic matters. And my own role ... moves more to the Community aspects, through the Community Rail Partnership.

[More to follow ... I'm on a timeline for a some major background stuff!]