Great Western Coffee Shop

The next public meeting of the West Wiltshire Rail Users Group will be at 7:00pm on Wednesday 25th November 2015 at the Civic Centre in Warminster. The speaker will be Matthew Collins, Operational Standards Manager, Central Region, for Great Western Railway. The talk is entitled "I want to be an Engine Driver". The Civic Centre is situated near Morrisons supermarket in the town centre and approximately 15 minutes walk from the station. The address is Sambourne Road, Warminster, Wilts, BA12 8LB. Further details and a copy of the flyer for the talk can be found on the website at www.wwrug.org.uk (http://www.wwrug.org.uk)

Many thanks for posting that item, dickyc.

I've also taken the opportunity to add it to our Coffee Shop forum calendar. :)

Following event - 20th January 2016 in Trowbridge Town Hall, addressed by Phil Dominey of South West Trains.

The West Wilts Rail user Group - http://wwrug.org.uk - "is an independent association which aims to maintain and enhance the rail services serving West Wiltshire. Meetings are held throughout the year in local towns, with prominent speakers from the rail industry, local government, and other relevant organisations giving informative talks on rail related issues. Members receive a regular newsletter in return for a very modest annual subscription."   The newsletter is available in print form only, to members only - see their site for details of membership.

"West Wilts" refers to the old district of West Wiltshire - comprising the towns of Trowbridge, Melksham, Warminster, Westbury and Bradford-on-Avon, with meetings held in Trowbridge, Warminster, Westbury and Bradford-on-Avon.  I would very much like to see the occasional meeting in Melksham, and indeed offered a free venue, but "The Committee has discussed your kind offer to host a meeting in Melksham. After careful thought we have decided that at the moment it is not practical as we feel that very few of our members are likely to make the journey".   I look forward to a time when travel to Melksham - the second largest of the five towns by population in West Wiltshire - isn't regarded as such an impractical proposition.

Thanks to Graham for posting this in plenty of time for the next meeting. Just an update on this - and quoting from the WWRUG website:

"Our next public meeting will be at 7:00pm on Wednesday 20th January 2016 at Trowbridge Town Hall. The speaker will be Phil Dominey, stakeholder relations manager for business development for South West Trains. In a change to the advertised subject (on the flyers) - due to Phil's involvement in preparing Stagecoach's bid for the new South Western rail franchise he will not be able to speak about South West Train's current services or their proposals for the new franchise due to confidentiality. Instead, he will give us a talk on the process of bidding for a rail franchise which will give us an insight into this process which forms a key part in the operation of the privatised railway."

So, unfortunately no questions about SWT service provisions at this meeting - but still come along and learn all about franchising!