Great Western Coffee Shop

Rail users have begun lobbying the government to safeguard a train service in the county.

Services between Westbury and Swindon were increased after efforts by rail group TransWilts and the local council.

But the franchise consultation document for the next five-year period does not include the newly increased timetable.

Ben Prater: It's 7:16 and a campaign's begun to safeguard neely increased train services in parts of Wiltshire. The number of assenger journeys on the line between Westbury and Swindon has risen from 50 to 400 a day since trains were increased at Christmas but travellars are worried that some of those services could already be under threat. They've not been included in a Department of Transport Consultation document for the next five year franchise for the Great Western Area. And that, it seems, could leave them vulnerable.  BBC Wiltshire's Karen Gardner has been getting the views of some passengers at Melksham

Passenger 1: I go to London. It save a lot of driving if you use your local station and it's got to be the way to get people off the road. The later train that this one is full. It's a single carriage and I've had to stand to Swindon so it's obviously being used more than they anticipated.

Passenger 2: I would be gutted because I use the train every day to go to work so I really like the service - it's fantastic from Melksham to Swindon every day - othewise I would have to go via Bath and then it doubles my commute. Ireally want to keep it.

Passenger 3: It's a bit poor really to be using it - you know, since it;s been increased teh service a lot of people are using it. So it would be a great shame if we lost it.

Passenger 4: I think it's a fantastic service and I think it's a real sham. I think it IS being supported and the trains are very busy particularly at peak time which is in the morning. Sometimes it's quite difficult to get seats. So it would be a real shame.

Passenger 5: If I want to take the family out I've got another option - I don't just have to take them on the bus. I can take them onthe train because they come back quickly.

Passenger 6: For the people working, that's quite bad isn't it? I just go to Swidnon to see my daughter so I just go once a week so it doesn't really effect me but I've been doing this for five years and there used to be two people at the station now there's about twelve so it's more than trippled. it would be a shame.

Passenger 7: Without this train I couldnt get to work so - angry - to be honset that they have increased the train and then they're going to take it away? Because there's so many more people that use this train now that from when I started back in November when I came here there would be 4 or 5 people now you get here and you're talking about 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 people

Ben: Passengers at Melksham. Let's get to Melksham Station now shall we where we join BBC Wiltshire's Karen Gardner. Karen - good morning.

Karen: Morning, Ben. Well Melksham station is tucked away down a little road called Station Approach North West of the town. You can hire a digger here, you can buy some tyres for your car or you can catch a train to Westbury or to Swindon. And as I look teh train - the 7:28 train I think it's a bit early or is just drawing in and a few people, perhaps half a dozen because it's half term so it's a bit quiet are getting on. It's not a big, noisy in-your-face station - it's a quiet polite little station that just gets on with it's job - doesn't it, Graham Ellis - you're President of the Melksham Chamber of Commerce and Industry and you've been campaigning to keep this line opened and to increase the train services.  How worried are you now about this consultation?

Graham:  The whole purpose of the Consultation is to get the inputs in and the inputs through so I'm not worried provided that we actually get those inputs in there. We're safe for a couple of years - it's all safeguarded there. The question comes in what happens from 2015 which - my goodness - is only next year through to 2020.  Do we cut back to just 6 a day, or do the extra two - you see one of them leaving just now - actually carry on running.  Because it would cut the heart out of the heart and lungs if one of them got taken out.

Karen: You're clearly passionate about this. Is there a sense of deja vue here?  I mean - this comes round again and you seem to have to campaign all over again.

Graham: I first got involved in this particular train service about 10 years ago and at that point then there were 5 each way a day.  We were told that because of a lack of inputs to a consulation that was when it got cut back down to 2 a day which was that previous service that some of the people were talking about before which was frankly pretty useless.  We've got the new service back here, we're up by a factor of 8 so this is democracy at work but we need to make those inputs - put those inputs in and indeed we have the website there which is www.railcustomer.info which has got a whole lot of the stuff to help guide people to what's happening and what's moving on.

We've got electrification coming on soe of the other lines. We've got recasting of services through Westbury. We have to make sure that we drop out of it with the right sort of services going forward for the future - that we carry on growing. Our surveys recon that we can go up to something like four times the traffic we've got at the moment over the next couple of years.

Karen: Now the Department of Transport would say it's there job to make sure that the money is being spent wisely - that franchises are being subsidised properly and they need to ask these questions. So what will you be saying to them?

Graham: We do have the various franchise figures - the benefit / cost ratios and all those various things there. We've got a very great deal of evidence to back up this case. I actually wonder if it's something like a slip in the specification where they've said that the train service is changed TO six a day rather than increased BY six a day.  But if it's a minimal as "oh, oops" then - hey - great - that's our job done if we get that message through. 

Karen: And what's your message to the people who are using the line?

Graham: Any issues you have, please get in touch with the Rail Partnership or The Chamber or First Great Western; everybody wants this to work, and this summer there's trains from here from Melksham to Weymouth every day of the week including Sunday - please use them; 10 to 10 in the morning. The more people we get on the train, the more our message gets through. So you can have fun and at the same time you can help support the case for the train here.

Karen: Ben, I'm old enough to say "let the train take the strain" and I think that's the message in Melksham today.

Ben: Thanks ever so much ... that was your express reporter there - express service; Karen Gardener at Melksham.

Now. First Great Western have told us they're pleased to see the serices exceeding passenger forecasts and the Department for Transport's Consultation is an important opportunity for people agross the region to let the DfT know their priorities and views.

Meanwhile, Wiltshire Council has told us they are also pleased that passenger numbers have exceeded expectations and they hope the positive response will be reflected in the DfT's consultation.

Intersetingly, I remember being in a coffee shop in Westbury as part of the "Wiltshire to the core" project getting out and about a couple of months ago and asking where you lot think the centre of Wiltshire is and how connected you feel to the rest of Wiltshire, from wherever you are ...and the first subject of conversation that came up was about how great it was for people in Westbury to have those increased train services - a bit of a lifeline, some were telling me.