"Leisure Passenger - you don't matter"?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

There really should be a thread here in "Smoke and Mirrors" to reflect the shoddy way SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) and the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) have gone about getting rid of the direct train service from London (Waterloo) to Bristol (Temple Meads).

Are you on Facebook?  If so, could you please share the status at https://www.facebook.com/CoffeeShopCRP/posts/3083736858540079 to help reach people. I was out on these services yesterday - full and standing, and so many folks I end up chatting with - even on the stations and trains - don't realise that the end is nigh!

From the Facebook post:

"Leisure Passenger? You don't matter"? "We are confident the withdrawal of our services will not materially  impact key flows of commuter or school traffic" says Claire Mann, MD, SWR

Read the full text below ... look at the picture which I took on one of the trains in question yesterday and tell me it should be withdrawn to better meet customer demand!

Please sign my petition at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/598397 if you haven't already done so, calling for the service to be retained for 2022 and properly consulted on. See also http://waterloo.savethetrain.org.uk

The letter says "Bradford-on-Avon", but this decision means the end of all through trains from London to Trowbridge, Bradford-on-Avon and Oldfield Park. Warminster and Keynsham will each be left with a single daily through train - in Keynsham's case at 06:20 from London.

SWR and the DfT have seriously misjudged the loadings of these trains and have decided to cull them in December based on, it would appear, network-wide loadings. London commuter levels may be down to a fraction, but these trains are full and standing even on Sunday mornings. It is perverse to remove our trains in Wiltshire because less people are commuting into London from Surrey!

[continues with text of letter ...]

 

[ChrisB]

You are missing a trick…they aren’t being removed based on ‘network-wide loadings’. They wish to save money, and are being removed to achieve that aim. They are satisfying themselves that the main operator can pick up the loadings, regardless of connections required.

[CyclingSid]

Assuming the loadings are still there to be picked up?

[ChrisB]

Not knowing their destinations doesn’t help, but I sispect most are travelling price-consciously - so as long as the fare continues (a fear of mine that it won’t), most would continue to travel