An update on the improved services from Melksham railway station. Graham Ellis, Trans Wilts Railway Partnership.
Minutes:
Graham Ellis gave an update on the work that the Trans Wilts Railway Partnership had been carrying out to improve services from Melksham railway station.
Points made by Graham Ellis included:
· Trains run every 30 minutes from Swindon to Chippenham, and at least every hour from Trowbridge to Salisbury.
· In the middle section of the line (Chippenham – Melksham - Trowbridge) there are just two trains each way per day:
From Chippenham at 06:30 and 19:01
From Trowbridge at -7:07 and 18:42
· North to South connectivity is dire; major roads run East-West and the North-South A350 trunk road is congested and slow.
· Good public transport is important to local people, not everyone can drive or owns a car.
· The A350 road is busy and bottlenecked and likely to become more so with housing growth and the heavy lorries diverted away from Bath / A36 Cleveland Bridge weight restrictions.
· Feedback from local residents, businesses, visitors to the area is for an appropriate service that:
Is affordable by the user that can be provided at affordable cost.
Services that do not require major capital investment to work.
· An extra service was trialed this summer on eight high summer Sunday mornings, It gave people the opportunity for a day out, It gave people the opportunity to use rail (as opposed to road or air) for some very long distance Sunday journeys. The feedback and take up of these extra services was very good.
· Next summer it is hoped to extend the trial service to start in May and run to mid September, and would look for it to carry on all through the year.
· First Great Western have withdrawn from the final three franchise years; First Great Western in “Cap and Collar” which means they pay around 75% of any extra revenue to the government; New Franchise process underway.
· The new franchise is a golden opportunity to get the right service. The Melksham line is perhaps the best prepared line in the South West with all the reports, and a line which needs no infrastructure work to run the trains.
· Electrification of the main line from London via Swindon and Chippenham will provide extra capacity, an extra draw of traffic from Trowbridge / Melksham, and an opportunity for small infrastructure and signalling measures to be included.
· TransWilts Rail and the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership would continue to liaise with both the rail industry and with local communities and operators of other transport (buses, cars, etc.) for a truly integrated door-to-door, linked multimode system.
· From the reports that TransWilts have generated, the surveys undertaken and the extra evidence gathered, TransWilts Rail is now in a position to take service improvement forward for the good of all who use it – and for the wider economy of the area too. Better access to work and businesses. Congestion relief. And to help to bring people into the town to make use of the new canal, the new campus, follow the blue plaque trail being set up, and really enjoy the area and help it prosper.
The Chairman thanked Graham Ellis for his presentation.