Busy day in Melksham
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-07-08 10:08:30 - Graham EllisYesterday, Chris Graying MP (shadow transport minister) and Michael Ancram QC MP (our local member) visited Melksham ... and specifically Melksham Station. Regular readers will know that our service is under threat of severe curtailment in December, and Chris and Michael came to support us and the campaign that's hosted on our web space at www.savethetrain.org.uk.
From Left - Chris Grayling, Michael Ancram, Graham Ellis, Margaret White (Mayor of Melksham)
Many, many others present too Superb interaction / discussion. VERY impressed by the MPs; clearly both very well prepared and knew their stuff. Cutting a long story short, everyone was in agreement that the proposed cut decision is flawed and daft. Swindon - Melksham - Southampton is a success story, with rapid traffic growth since this 5-a-day service replaced the 2-a-day service we had until 2001; ticket sales up 8 fold according to the office of the rail regulator, passenger now 32 per train according to figures supplied by First, the current operator.
Reasons / thoughts / actions discussed (that information appearing in detail on the "train site" over the next few days), but hinging largely on the Department for Transport trying to save money on smaller services while Network Rail runs away asking for billions for grandious schemes. The tragedy is that it would "only" cost 5 million to reverse ALL the cuts in the South West, insignificant beside the 28 Billion that Network Rail is now asking for. And the cuts are a short term expedient; as traffic grows, as it would IF the 5-a-day or 2-hourly service was provided, the economics of the service mean that it would end up carrying more and more passengers, for less and less subsidy. Without the trains, you're displacing 109,000 journeys per year to the car, to other "dogleg" routes with awkward changes at Bath, and to the local bus that doesn't even go where people want to go (Swindon, Salisbury, Southampton), nor even go to the station in Chippenham.
I swung by the station this morning just before the 09:15 to Southampton called. About a dozen people waiting, some with suitcases as if on a longer journey. Others with pushchair and kids in tow - perhaps going for a day out at the seaside? What a tragedy it would be if this is the last summer this can be done.