Best performing station for passenger growth 07/08

[whole diary]

[John R]

The stats are out - we can now see which station in the west performed best in terms of passenger growth for the period May 07 to May 08. Remember this is the first full year after the new franchise timetable was introduced in December 06.

And the winner is...... (cue fanfare, opening of golden envelope)

Are you ready?

With an amazing 73% growth on the previous year....

Bet you can't wait.....

Clue, it begins with an M, and end with an M 

Yes, it's Melksham.

And now, over to Graham Ellis for the acceptance speech.....

[grahame]

And now, over to Graham Ellis for the acceptance speech.....

John, it would be a bitter speech, I fear. 

We were promised that if we raised ticket sales, services would be increased. So we raised ticket sales from 3200 per annum 8 years ago to 38000 last year. That's a ten fold increase!  It seems we were lied to and by people in high places - the dramatic increase in ticket sales comes in spite of a cut from 5 round trips a day to just two ... and I don't see anyone from First, from Wiltshire Council or from the Department for Transport running around and making positive noises about improved services in the near future.

I've not been a 'campaigner' for very long, but I have learned that there are very few people in whom you can trust ... either they change their requirements, or they're replaced by a new broom who doesn't take over the promises made ... which is where we find ourselves at the moment.

[tramway]

Whether that figure actually equates to footfall is debatable, as the Melksham to Bristol ticket price is/was substantially cheaper than from Trowbridge, which passengers gradually began to realise.

(I really should have read the station stats thread where John had already noted the price difference) 

[grahame]

Whether that figure actually equates to footfall is debatable, as the Melksham to Bristol ticket price is/was substantially cheaper than from Trowbridge, which passengers gradually began to realise.

The figure equates to an average of 25 passengers either leaving or joining each and every train at Melksham, which clearly doesn't happen;  I'm working out and will be posting some best estimates of the true situation.  But we have been surprised - no amazed at just how robust usage is at odd hours, and just how much of the traffic is very clearly uni-directional as far as the TransWilts is concerned.   More to follow

[grahame]

More to follow

I've posted the follow up here:

http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=7971.0

as it's getting rather TransWilts specific