29th November 2023 - West Wiltshire Rail User Group meeting

[whole diary]

[grahame]

West Wilts Rail User Group - 2023 Program - as planned at Committee meeting, 6.12.2022, provisional.

* January 2023 - Newsletter
* Wednesday 1st March 2023 - Annual General Meeting and a passenger / rail community speaker
* April 2023 - Newsletter
* Wednesday 31st May 2023 - A rail industry speaker
* Saturday 8th July 2023 - Group trip by train to Weymouth
* August 2023 - Newsletter
* Wednesday 20th September 2023 - A passenger / rail community speaker
* October 2023 - Newsletter
* Wednesday 29th November 2023 - A rail industry speaker

* All public meetings at the Bethesda Church Hall, near Trowbridge station.  It has proven itself excellent postCovid whereas other venues we have used have moved on and are now better suited for other types of events rather than ours.  Timings have (and should continue) to connect with return trains to West Wilts stations; for Melksham we continue to ask for a late train (wouldn't it be good to celebrate that on 31st May?) but in the meantime can arrange alternatives for members.

* Strategy is alternating "industry" and "enthusaist-ish" talks.  Industry are GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) / Network Rail / SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) / DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) types, perhaps CRPs^▸ (Community Rail Partnership). Enthusiastics are are history, preservation, journey type talks.

* And whilst we really hope that industrial action will have ceased before the next public meeting, policy is for meetings to go ahead even if trains are not running.

We HAVE celebrated the "get you home" train - a success story that started in the early summer. And we'll be using it again on 29th November.

From what I have just written on Facebook ... https://www.facebook.com/groups/wwrug/posts/1125132915270160/



The Committee of the West Wiltshire Rail User Group, which has around 100 members "In Real Life" met last night and we set forward our plans for the next year. Our next public meeting is on 29th November at the Bethesda Church Hall in Trowbridge (across the square from the station) at 19:00 for 19:30, where we will be addressed by a senior member of the GWR team looking forward for rail in West Wiltshire.  The meeting concludes in time for people to return home by train, including (these days) to Melksham, Chippenham and Swindon using the extra evening service added this summer.

For 2024, we have provisional dates for meetings in March (includes a short AGM^▸ (Annual General Meeting)), May, September and November, for a summer outing in July and for newsletter in the New Year, April, Midsummer and October.  Membership costs less than £10 per year - contact details at https://www.wwrug.org.uk/index.html - or you can come along to our public meeting and pay £2 on the door to help us cover costs, or join for the whole of next year.

Between our public meetings, the WWRUG^» (West Wiltshire Rail Users Group - about) user group committee meets every 2 months formally and there's much more activity in between. We work with GWR, SWR, Community Rail Partnerships and others to nurture rail improvements, and to feed suggestions and issues through to appropriate parties and to help pass on and their feedback, helping to sift the data to the concerned users.

THIS FACEBOOK GROUP is a public group, with everyone welcome to read.  We welcome contributions, comments and questions from both our "real in real life" and other interested parties too.  However, may I stress that we want to keep the group "clean" and on topic, and at last night's committee meeting we confirmed that off topic material will be refused.   For the absence of doubt, our sphere of interest is in rail journeys - current and potential - to, from, within and through West Wiltshire.