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A request for all of Melksham transport groups to work integrated

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2013-03-01 08:16:14 - Graham Ellis

It was suggested the other night that Melksham's Community Area Partnership Transport Group might like to run as separate groups, looking at different modes of transport - Buses, Trains, Car, Cycle, Foot. And whilst I agree that focus groups on individual modes might be useful at times, I cannot agree that separate treatment of each would be wise.

• If I'm travelling to London on Monday, I can catch the bus at the end of m street to the station and get there at 07:08, for the 07:20 train. Coming back, the train arrives at the station at 19:11 - which has just missed the 19:04 bus, and there isn't another bus until 20:48.

• Some 80% of people travelling from Chippenham station arrive at the station in a car - and once a decent service re-starts at Melksham, the figure might be almost as high. So the majority of rail passengers are also car users. And they'll need facilities for cars "street side" in Melksham.

• I usually walk from work into Melksham (e.g. to visit the bank at lunch time). I might drive - and go there more often too (to the benefit of the town's shops) if I could be sure I could park for 10 minutes without having to pay 40p(works out at 2.40 per hour).

• Sometimes I drive from home to work, and at other times I walk. I would cycle if I felt safe - if there was a separate cycleway and I didn't have to negotiate a busy roundabout and traffic which squeezes to the edge of the road and often goes much faster than the speed limit.

Working groups to consider the expertise / skills / major interests of each group - good idea. Splitting into separate groups without a substantial integrated umbrella - bad idea. It just needs one disjoint (see rail / bus example at top) for the whole thing to fail.

The image is a very old one ... I was looking for a picture to link rail and bus at Melksham station but there's currently a massive disjoint which does NO-ONE - bus companies, train companies, possible passengers - any good. Bus stops are on the road, and not even at the top of station approach - you have to know where you're going ...