Happy Birthday

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Today, we're celebrating the first birthday of the improved trial service on the TransWilts line - there's a party at Westbury Station at 10:00 (be there from 09:45) followed by a trip to Swindon and back on the 10:32 ... then the 13:15 and 16:17 departures are both taking lots of children to see Santa in Swindon.  The 17:20 is a folk music train - just turn up, and you get music, minced pie and the train trip for a tenner.

Wiltshire Council's "Connecting Wiltshire" Website celebrates here:

http://www.connectingwiltshire.co.uk/rail/happy-birthday-transwilts-train/

Happy Birthday to the TransWilts train!

The Trans-Wilts train service which provides better rail services between Westbury and Swindon will be celebrating its first anniversary with a cake and festive Father Christmas trains.
The rail service launched in December 2013 and has improved travel for those travelling between Westbury and Swindon, stopping at Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham. For the past year, there have been trains running every two hours on weekdays, including early morning and evening services in both directions, as well as an additional four trains on Sundays.

The journey time from Westbury to Swindon is 48 minutes, and just 20 minutes to travel between Chippenham to Trowbridge. The Trans Wilts service is run by First Great Western with funding from the council and the Government for the first three years.

Celebrations will take place on Sunday, December 14 at Westbury train station ^ including a birthday cake for supporters of the campaign. The cake cutting will precede an anniversary journey leaving Westbury at 10.32am and later that day there are two Santa Special trains, for families and children to enjoy, and a ^folk music^ train early evening.

Horace Prickett, portfolio holder for transport at Wiltshire Council said: ^It is thanks to the hard work of people who have driven this project forward that we have the north-south Trans Wilts line for three years and we hope beyond.^

^Now the challenge is to extend the line southwards from Westbury to Salisbury.^

I feel a bit like a member of the line's extended family - an uncle or cousin - who's taken an interest over the year, and we've taken a look back at Santa's wish list for the new 'child' from last year as we celebrate that first birthday.   Here's something from our "Past, present, future - the TransWilts line" handout (yes, really, hard copy!) today.

Santa^s wish list

Strong marketing, with First Great Western, Wiltshire Council (under the ^Connecting Wiltshire^ brand) and the Community Rail Partnership all playing their part together, is promoting knowledge of the service, and all parties are co-operating in monitoring and tuning the marketing and the services that it^s promoting. Passenger counts and surveys in October, over a four-day period, and other inputs, tell us:
^ The service has achieved its third-year target passenger numbers in the first year.
^ Two thirds of travellers had not previously used rail for this journey.
^ 60% of passengers did not have a car available for this journey.
^ More than half the passengers walk or cycle to the station.
^ The growth in this year is the highest growth rate of any First Great Western line.
^ Some of the new trains are already full, and indeed over capacity, [but please don^t let that put you off travelling].
^ There is a very positive response from passengers to the new services.
^ Positive feedback, busy services and further requests indicate a desire for, and the likely success of, further rail and public transport improvements.

Santa Couldn^t have wished for a better start to the new service.

[grahame]

As acting press and publicity officer for the TransWilts CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) - at least up until the January AGM^▸ (Annual General Meeting) - I've had the honour to say great things about the child to the wider public, and to bask in the glory of a successful service when really those thanks should go elsewhere.

To First Great Western - both at a management and an operational level. To Wiltshire Council - both at an elected and an officer level.  To other rail and government elements, such as the Network Rail teams who have fought in poor weather to keep the line open (and axle counters and signals working in any weather), to the Department for Transport with the LSTF^▸ (Local Sustainable Transport Fund) Grant without which this wouldn't have happened, to ACoRP^▸ (Association of Community Rail Partnerships) officers for welcoming us into their fold and to our MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) - especially Duncan Hames - and others and prospective candidates for crossparty support.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of a Community Rail Partnership, and today no less that 17 of us are helping with the Santa trips, and we've had even more people out there on some projects.  We shouldn't forget the back room people who do things like our graphic artwork, nor the wider community who help us promote the line - our ambassadors at tourist information centres, our friends in the press who help so much get the message out there and sometimes go "beyond the call". Thank you to all of our volunteers and ambassadors.

But most of all a "Thank you" to people who have used the service.  You'll be hearing today of over 160,000 journeys made in a year. On Friday, I was asked how many different people had used the service, and workings on the back of an envelope have given me an estimate of somewhere around 15 to 20 thousand.  They range from 10 journey a week commuters, right through to someone who's made just a single transit of the line during the year.  And the biggest THANK YOU is to them - the customers - without whom there would be no point in having this service.


The new timetable from today until next may is available online at http://atrebatia.info/timetable.html and is also available in your local tourist information centres

[rogerw]

I hope everything ran smoothly today.  Having joined the inaugural train last year I was disappointed that family commitments prevented me from attending the first birthday celebrations.  Here's to another successful year.

[grahame]

I hope everything ran smoothly today.  Having joined the inaugural train last year I was disappointed that family commitments prevented me from attending the first birthday celebrations.  Here's to another successful year.

Thanks, Roger ... a few plans needed changing along the way to overcome the effects of train delays, but a very positive view was taken by all at the birthday celebrations of - err - a very positive story!   The trains to see Santa both got held up on the way to Swindon so that Santa didn't have time to see everyone, but then he came back with us on the first train to Melksham and rode up on the second again so that gave hime more time with the children.  Sensible solution

Second return train got held up awaiting the TransWilts so that a stone train could come the other way ... again illustrating the need for some way of adding more width.

[grahame]

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11670560.Westbury_to_Swindon_route_a_huge_success/

[grahame]

Also at

http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/11669391.Rail_campaigners_celebrate_TransWilts_service_s_first_anniversary/

RAIL campaigners celebrated the first anniversary of the TransWilts train line on Sunday, with the service doubling the predicted number of journeys made by passengers in its inaugural year.

The service between Westbury and Swindon, which is subsidised by Wiltshire Council, was estimated to make 45,000 journeys in the first 12 months but has been used more than 100,000 times by passengers since launching in December 2013.

For the past year there have been trains running every two hours on weekdays, including early morning and evening services in both directions, as well as an additional four trains on Sundays.

The number of passengers making the 100,000 journeys is around 20,000 people, with the service travelling between Westbury and Swindon, stopping at Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.

Horace Prickett, portfolio holder for transport at Wiltshire Council, said: ^The first year of the TransWilts improved service has been a resounding success. We are delighted that it has proven to be so popular.

"The hope now is that the improved service can be extended all the way to Salisbury, which would link the two main Wiltshire communities of Salisbury and Swindon."

The TransWilts service is run by First Great Western, with funding from the council and the government for the first three years, and celebrations held at Westbury station on Sunday included a birthday cake.

The cake cutting preceded an anniversary journey from Westbury to Swindon and there were also two Santa Special trains, as well as a 'folk music' train in the evening.

Among those who attended were Wiltshire Council members, volunteers of the Trans Wilts Community Partnership, local MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) Andrew Murrison and Duncan Hames.

And from the comment

An excellent initiative that has provided a really good service, for once WC^▸ (Wiltshire Council (Unitary Authority)) has acted in a positive way to the benefit of people in Wiltshire.

[grahame]

"What a difference a year makes" - my blog post at
http://www.wellho.net/mouth/4362_What-a-difference-a-year-makes.html

Last year:

.
This year:

Much more background and another picture if you follow the lin 

[Chris from Nailsea]

I rather think grahame is encouraging us to follow the link rather than to start stalking a female called Lin. 

[grahame]

I rather think grahame is encouraging us to follow the link rather than to start stalking a female called Lin. 

Yeah, Lynn's a lovely person and I wouldn't want you to stalk her.   There's a shorthand link too ...



(Clicking on the image above should take you there unless I've made another spilling mistook)

[LiskeardRich]

I noticed today a 153 is still wearing a big sticker on the side celebrating the 1st anniversary of the service improvements. Its found its way to Falmouth today, so the people of Falmouth to Truro have the advert for your local line. I've not seen this 153 before so assuming this particular 153 doesn't come West very often

[grahame]

I noticed today a 153 is still wearing a big sticker on the side celebrating the 1st anniversary of the service improvements. Its found its way to Falmouth today, so the people of Falmouth to Truro have the advert for your local line. I've not seen this 153 before so assuming this particular 153 doesn't come West very often

Delighted it's reached you.   We should probably ask / see if we can an updated Vinyl on it, though ... I'll add that to my WIBNIF (Wouldn't It Be Nice IF) list.

I'm delighted that it's ranging away from the line itself - a great advert to the wide world. If it's on the line,by the time people have seen it they're travelling by train in these parts anyway. 

[phile]

I noticed today a 153 is still wearing a big sticker on the side celebrating the 1st anniversary of the service improvements. Its found its way to Falmouth today, so the people of Falmouth to Truro have the advert for your local line. I've not seen this 153 before so assuming this particular 153 doesn't come West very often

Any branding doesn't determine where the unit works.   It just cycles round like the rest of the fleet and has probably been down west as often as it has to Melksham.

[LiskeardRich]

I noticed today a 153 is still wearing a big sticker on the side celebrating the 1st anniversary of the service improvements. Its found its way to Falmouth today, so the people of Falmouth to Truro have the advert for your local line. I've not seen this 153 before so assuming this particular 153 doesn't come West very often

Any branding doesn't determine where the unit works.   It just cycles round like the rest of the fleet and has probably been down west as often as it has to Melksham.

I realise branding means nothing to do with routes. As a regular traveller it was a unit branding I hadn't come across before.

[grahame]

I realise branding means nothing to do with routes. As a regular traveller it was a unit branding I hadn't come across before.

I'm afraid it's not the most noticeable of brandings .. with their limited limited time left at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), I suspect we won't see (m)any more branding updates on 153s - so perhaps we should look forward to a 2 car 158 with a white horse against a GWR green field on one end, a magic roundabout on the other, and in between a teasel drying building, a pack horse bridge and a picture of Chippenham station building ...