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Shadow Transport Minister to visit Melksham

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-07-02 14:54:03 - Graham Ellis

Chris Grayling, the shadow transport spokesman, will be meeting local MP Michael Ancram at Melksham station on Friday, 7th July at 11 a.m. Don't quite know how we managed to get that much attention, but it could be a fabulous help in our battle to save the train .... this post is adaped from a press release which carried on (Below the picture of Melksham Station):



Train services to Melksham are due to be slashed by 60% in December, in spite of a growth in ticket sales from 3,000 to 27,000 per annum in just five years. The Department for Transport who are behind the cuts quote average train use figures of just 12 passengers per train - that's from a very short snapshot survey around Easter last year which is statistically inadequate. First group quote figures of 109,000 journeys per year which works out at 32 passengers per train, and matches up with my personal but unscientific observations, and the 27,000 ticket sales since we estimate that for every passenger who leaves or joins, 3 stay on.

All are welcome (press very much welcomed) next Friday, and run-up publicity welcomed too.

I live and work in Melksham and run the web site http://www.savethetrain.org.uk which has many more details.

Finally, we've a web page at here which everyone is welcome to use to email their views to the decision makers.

So, Geeks, friends, family, others ... PLEASE follow that link you've just skipped past in the last paragraph, and email someone on behalf of the train, and PLEASE come along next Friday if that's at all possible!