Great Western Coffee Shop

For next Saturday I have booked a trip to Waterloo ... always popular in West Wilts, but a few seats remain (https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/market-place/melksham-assembly-hall/waterloo-live/e-kyxjxl):

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/waterloolive.jpg)

... and we're off to Grease - or is that Greece - in April ...

When I saw the headline for the first time I thought a special train had been organised to London Waterloo.

I too had visions that you and Mark A had organised a Bath to Waterloo (steam possibly) special..
Not April 1st is it?  ::)

If such an event would generate predominantly good publicity and be practical, affordable, enjoyable, resourceable, effective use of time and we could manage the risks then why not?   One of the few areas where support for the through services was less than 100% was from elements of the rail enthusiast lobby, where the view was that changes of train along the way add to the experience and provide variety on the journey, and where their cost of travel hasn't been a major decider.  That was a far from unanimous view - probably very much a minority one - but it does help to suggest to me that the passenger card is a stronger and purer one than the enthusiast card.

Don't Belmond already run occasional steam trips from London to Bath via Salisbury?  Now it WOULD be 1st April if I were to suggest those were to be increase to three times a day each way, calling at Keynsham, Oldfield Park, Bradford-on-Avon, Trowbridge, Warminster and Clapham Junction too, and offering travel with all the standard tickets available on the line.  I suspect the trains might be busy with people on Rover tickets, Groupsaves, etc and would to enormous good in encouraging people back to rail, and new people to try it with their families.

Hmm

That might be seen as something of a simplistic view, because the “rail enthusiast lobby” (which includes I presume some serving railwaymen) might actually understand the practicalities of running a service with reduced passenger numbers as a result of pandemic. Joe Public will not be aware of these and will only see a one-sided point of view, probably seen through rose-tinted glasses.

If the majority view always prevailed, we would have brought back hanging and conscription many years ago. We would have run the risk of having to pardon dead people or filled the Armed Forces with people who didn’t want to be there and weren’t wanted there anyway, just because the majority thought it was a good thing.

Joe Public will often support things for no apparent reason. I remember standing on Teewell Hill Bridge between Staple Hill and Mangotsfield in 1963 after the Beeching Report was published as two neighbours were walking by and a Bath stopper had just come out of Staple Hill tunnel. Said He to Her “it will be a pity when they close it” but I had never once in y life seen em waiting on Staple Hill station...

Indeed, for an example you need look no further than Melksham. After the station reopened it was found that there were a lot more people who supported the reopening than were prepared to put their hands in their pocket and buy a ticket, and that is why the service was abysmal for 30-odd years.

So did you do a survey to measure levels of support? Did you ask questions like “do you oppose the withdrawal?” and “would you use the service if it was reinstated?”

If you asked “how many times a month did you use the service when it ran you might – just might – get a different perspective, and one perhaps not to far adrift from the “rail enthusiast lobby”

I’ll do Brexit next if you like.  ;D

Let's do one at a time, Robin

I can only speak with authority to Melksham changes after 2006, but prior to that and indeed right through to 2013 we had either a lack of trains or a lack of publicity, very often both, and a lack of giving any service improvements time to be promoted and bed in.   And you can't fill trains if they're not running, nor if people don't know about them.

I am very much aware of "optimism factor" - people who want services but overstate their use (which might turn out be zero) but with an overwhelming flood of support and a useable, reliable and publicised timetable there will be an abundant supply of takers at about the right level if the forecasting is roughly right.   Public surveys, business surveys, professional analysis and (!) proving that we could get people onto trains which was hard when we had virtually none.  We have a number of quite superb transport professionals here, and we can hear hard truths and differing views from them at times and discuss things practically - I love it and very happy with it and that combination.

Been to Waterloo this evening.  Two pictures ... and two pictures from Paddington to prove just how different destinations they are, and how different the people who go there are. 

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/watpeop.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/watdest.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/padpeop.jpg)

 (http://www.wellho.net/pix/paddest.jpg)