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Melksham - placed 2254 out of 2255. What can be done about it?

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2012-06-11 06:15:16 - Graham Ellis

From January to March, consultation inputs were required by the Department for Transport with regard to what "stakeholders" wanted to be included in the next franchise for operation of train services in the Thames Valley, Wessex, the Cotswolds, the West and South West, and South Wales. I understand that some 1300 responses were received, and I estimate that inputs relating to the service on the TransWilts line (Swindon to Westbury via Melksham, with onbound travel requirement to Salisbury) were ten times those that related to other services, when measured in proportion to the size of the line. I'm not surprised by this; the consultation document says "let's start our discussions from the current service level", which is about the only way it could have been done ... but the current services on the TransWilts are completely inappropriate for the area / towns / traffic they should be serving.

Just how inappropriate the current service level is (compared to what it was a decade ago) was brought home to me during this week's Ruby course when I was manipulating passenger statistics across Great Britain for the past few years. Ignoring stations which have such low usage that changes are statistically insignificant, there are 2255 stations in Great Britain. And in terms of passenger growth or shrinkage, Melksham comes in at number 2254 out of 2255. Only Bowling, in Dumbartonshire, fared worse. The reason for the drop at Melksham? Part of it, surely, must be the drop from 5 return trips per day, spread at sensible times, prior to December 2006 which has reduced under the current franchise to just 2 return trips per day, and the train operating company doesn't run even these services at the time of day when they would get most use.

Melksham Station - when no trains are due


Melksham Station - when a train is due at a time that it's useful. This happened through last summer with an extra trial Sunday service, and a few weeks before Christmas when Santa came with us on the train to Swindon


The Invitation to Tender for the next franchise was due to be published (or at least provided to the bidders) this month, but we now understnd from a well informed source that it won't come out until the latter part of July. Bids are due in in October, and a decision is due to be announced in December. The new franchise starts on 29th April 2013; do not necessarily expect to see early changes after that date, even though when First took over there was an immediate change of staff uniforms the following morning! All four bidders are very different, and would have their own stamp on things. All four, though, are experienced rail operators and are perfectly capable of doing an excellent job for us, just as each of them has been around long enough to have skeletons in the cupboard that means they have their detractors.

Now that the DfT's consultation process is over, at the TransWilts CRP we are working to ensure that all of the bidders are well informed as to the line, the works done to look in great detail at the case for future services, and the availablility of local support. We're also looking to help them know what the local key factors are. Price? Speed? Frequency? Comfort? Safety? Connections? Information? Reliability? Cleanliness? Ticket availability? Colour of trains? Waiting Rooms? These could all be key, but we're helping to provide local detail and ranking.

All four bidders are very different, and we're in a different situation with each of them and how they're "playing it". At one extreme, there's a bidder that's come across as very attentive and really listening. And, yes, there's an example of the other extreme too. But these are early days, and I would love to be able to report at the end of the process that all have listened, interacted and proposed well. Not only would that mean a better tuned proposal, but it would also bode very well for a future where we need to work together. We can't afford another seven - or fifteen - years of being in the railway wilderness.

The letting of this franchise isn't going to be decided on the TransWilts alone, nor on our opinions of the bidders. But we can (and should) be able to form our opinions, and review each of the options - and I'll certainly be doing so, and letting our MP have a qualitative and infored view and ranking in the early autumn, so that he can inform his ministerial colleagues as to the relative views from Wiltshire. We're looking for an appropriate service, and we're looking for a service provider who's responsive to local needs. The latter has, in recent history been lacking. So it was good to hear on local radio on Friday morning comments by both our current train operator and our MP that backed up our request for a service, in the next franchise, of 10 trains each way per day.

Melksham was 2254 out of 2255. The town of Dronfield, which is of similar size, was third out of 2255. The difference? There's additional trains calling at Dronfield - about one every hour - and the station there is headed for 25 times the traffic that Melksham currently has. Yet more evidence that an appropriate service on the TransWilts WILL WORK.

Some references and further reading:
• Full results [here] (after the sample program)
• Discussion on Dronfield / Melksham [here]
• Transwilts CRP web site [here]
• Presentation on what should / should be in next franchise and full consulaltion input to the DfT [here]
• discussion forum [here]