Trains across Wiltshire - an update on the TransWilts
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2012-09-28 07:22:41 - Graham Ellis
The county of Wiltshire, in central southern England, is characterised as being largely rural, but in practise most of the population lives in urban areas (towns) of which Swindon (pop 200,000), Salisbury (45,000), Chippenham (40,000), Trowbridge (30,000) and Melksham (25,000) are the largest, separated by beautiful open countryside. Three great east / west rail lines cross the county, as do two trunk roads - the M4 and the A303 - but north / south communications date back to Victorian times, with roads which take right-angle turns to go around some land owner's estate, and a TransWilts railway line from Swindon (in the north) to Salisbury (in the south) which supports just two passenger trains each way per day on the central section. And whilst the roads are quaint and the railway line has its charm, the county's population, the economy of the area, and the leisure and tourist trade are crying out for better transport links - making better use of road and rail, public and private in an integrated network which could provide so much benefit to so many.
Taking an example ... from Trowbridge (County Town) to Swindon, the direct train takes 34 minutes, driving takes 53 minutes and the direct bus - described as an express - takes 80 minutes for the 23 miles. Problem is ... the train only runs at 07:07 and 19:40.
"The TransWilts Community Rail Partnership (TWCRP) is a group of like-minded organisations seeking to achieve positive, sustainable and imaginative development of the TransWilts (Swindon to Salisbury) railway in ways which also benefit the places it serves, including enhancement of services to meet the current and future travel requirements of those places. It sees the line as an essential link for the local communities and businesses along the route, and as part of the projected strategic north - south rail link through an area experiencing major expansion. The TWCRP liaise with all interested parties to promote the social, economic and environmental prosperity of the local communities"
As well as serving all five towns listed above, the TransWilts line also serves the substantial towns of Warminster (20,000) and Westbury (15,000) , and the residential area of Dilton Marsh or rather it would serve those places if there was an appropriate service. A great deal of work has been done in working out what "appropriate" means - to give a service that's affordable and that would be used, and it's now commonly acknowledged that a service that runs about every 2 hours, with key timings to suit certain commuter and leisure flows, and good onward connections, would be well used and have a significantly positive benefit to cost ratio (2.74 to 1). Public surveys and businesses back up the desire for better services on the line, and an operational studies show than it's feasible to run without capital expenditure on infrastucture, both before and after the electrification of the line through Swindon with the changes that will bring.
Translating theory into practise isn't an easy step with the railways. However, all the major player are onside in the case of the TransWilts. Bidders for the Great Western Franchise to run from 2013 to 2028 have been asked to provide a costed option for a service of at least 8 trains each way (Monday to Saturday), 4 (winter Sundays) and 5 (summer Sundays) covering the intermediate (Chippenham to Trowbridge) section, with other details in the invitation to tender helping to ensure that such a service would overcome the identified "lack of trains at the right time" issue. The Local Sustainable Transport Fund has granted 4.25 million pounds to Wiltshire's integrated public transport offering, and that substantially resolves issues that would be raised with marketing and capacity at and around stations on the line caused by an increase in traffic of several orders of magnitude. Wiltshire Council has committed alongside that LSTF grant to fund 1.25 million of service support for the first three years.
The net effect of all of this? We're working towards a two-hourly service in the next year or two, and we anticipate achieving both that service and linkages and marketing which will ensure that the connectional facilities and information is available (and known about it) to create a joined-up travel product which will be very well used indeed. The illustration here is a "teaser" of what the northbound service could look like.
How can we be so sure that we can succeed? Because we already have a track record, and because all the evidence is there to support it!. In the summer of 2011, we rose to the challenge of a trial service, gaining subsidy for 8 extra trains via the Chambers of Commerce and with the help of sponsors for individual days ranging from big companies to small, and including Wiltshire Council and visit Wiltshire. Our problems weren't in attracting customers - in fact we had too many takers, with people standing in trains which had already been strengthened from the original plan, and significant traffic (that could have been year-round) even on the unlikely "opposite direction" working at 07:30 on Sunday from Westbury to Swindon that we had expected to be close to an empty coaching stock (ECS) working. Illustration - passenger traffic during our extra summer Sunday train trial - joining at Westbury
Other significant results to date include the depth of the various studies, the addition of a southbound Sunday train earlier in the franchise, and the retiming of the 06:20 from Swindon to Salisbury to 06:12 - that sounds crazy, but it means that a connection to London at Westbury is now possible, and the local knowledge and request has made an extra journey opportunity which brings significant farebox revenue to the train operators possible.
In association with the Melksham Railway Development Group, we also support the annual "Santa Train" - making the best use of a service train which has been strengthened for us - and fill all the carriages with children who are often on their first ever train trip, and with grandparents who haven't travelled on a train since their youth. This is, truely, building up a base of people who are again aware of rail travel in Wiltshire (and in the case of the Santa train, reminding them that there is a station in Melksham, even though its service is sparse!
The TransWilts Community Rail Partnership has applied for membership of ACoRP - the association of Community Rail Partnerships - , but the application hasn't yet been accepted. "ACoRP's primary purpose is to promote existing train services and work co-operatively with the TOC and other members of the rail industry. Our remit does not extend to re-openings or major train service development, although of course we do take an interest in these projects." The TransWilts CRP is minded to reapply when currently planned service improvements have been implemented so that we may then make use of the expertise and knowledge within ACoRP, to help us ensure that we do our best to make the line a success in the future.
It's fashionable to say at the end of an article like this "here's how you can help" to the general public reader, but at the moment everyone's working well together to bring the project to fruition, and we're not looking for any form of mass lobbying or research data. It's very much co-operative. Sion, Phil, Chris, Peter and Graham, the five key officers of the TWCRP are in touch with Wiltshire Council, and with each of the franchise bidders, and with the open access provider Go-op too, to ensure that they are as full informed as possible for bids and work in the future, and they're fully aware of our commitment to help. We represent local groups and interests of all sorts, and we'll be formalising the CRP and moving onto a more conventional footing with it once the future TOC has been selected. You WILL find various questions being asked in places as we research issues (such as "what percentage of users might we expect to get to the station by bus / cyle / taxi / private car"), and you are very welcome to get in touch on any matter at all, to use the current service, and to keep an eye out on what we're doing and how we're progressing.
In 2011, we had 8 extra trains each way across the summer. In the future, we're looking forward to welcoming you on 8 trains each way per day, every day from Monday to Saturday. It's a sea change, for the best economic and quality of life reasons, for Wiltshire.
The county of Wiltshire, in central southern England, is characterised as being largely rural, but in practise most of the population lives in urban areas (towns) of which Swindon (pop 200,000), Salisbury (45,000), Chippenham (40,000), Trowbridge (30,000) and Melksham (25,000) are the largest, separated by beautiful open countryside. Three great east / west rail lines cross the county, as do two trunk roads - the M4 and the A303 - but north / south communications date back to Victorian times, with roads which take right-angle turns to go around some land owner's estate, and a TransWilts railway line from Swindon (in the north) to Salisbury (in the south) which supports just two passenger trains each way per day on the central section. And whilst the roads are quaint and the railway line has its charm, the county's population, the economy of the area, and the leisure and tourist trade are crying out for better transport links - making better use of road and rail, public and private in an integrated network which could provide so much benefit to so many.
Translating theory into practise isn't an easy step with the railways. However, all the major player are onside in the case of the TransWilts. Bidders for the Great Western Franchise to run from 2013 to 2028 have been asked to provide a costed option for a service of at least 8 trains each way (Monday to Saturday), 4 (winter Sundays) and 5 (summer Sundays) covering the intermediate (Chippenham to Trowbridge) section, with other details in the invitation to tender helping to ensure that such a service would overcome the identified "lack of trains at the right time" issue. The Local Sustainable Transport Fund has granted 4.25 million pounds to Wiltshire's integrated public transport offering, and that substantially resolves issues that would be raised with marketing and capacity at and around stations on the line caused by an increase in traffic of several orders of magnitude. Wiltshire Council has committed alongside that LSTF grant to fund 1.25 million of service support for the first three years.
How can we be so sure that we can succeed? Because we already have a track record, and because all the evidence is there to support it!. In the summer of 2011, we rose to the challenge of a trial service, gaining subsidy for 8 extra trains via the Chambers of Commerce and with the help of sponsors for individual days ranging from big companies to small, and including Wiltshire Council and visit Wiltshire. Our problems weren't in attracting customers - in fact we had too many takers, with people standing in trains which had already been strengthened from the original plan, and significant traffic (that could have been year-round) even on the unlikely "opposite direction" working at 07:30 on Sunday from Westbury to Swindon that we had expected to be close to an empty coaching stock (ECS) working. Illustration - passenger traffic during our extra summer Sunday train trial - joining at Westbury