2009 was a busy year - and 2010 could be busier. Happy New Year

We've still go a few hours to go, but I'm posting here to wish everyone a happy New Year, and to thank you one and all for making this forum as busy as it is.

Cancellations have dropped, trains run much more on time, and overcrowding is now much less of an issue than when this forum was set up. So it's all the more remarkable that we what started as something of a 'protest' site has grown, and continues to grow, even with the improved timetables and performance on most (but not all) services.

Past Decembers have always been months when timetable changes have boosted our posts early in the month, but then the Christmas break has seen so many people away that the month has ended quietly, and the total post count for the month has been low. This month has bucked that trend ... as I write, this has already been the busiest month this year ... for posts, for new members, and for new subjects too, even though there wasn't the big chance of times and stock that we've seen in previous years.

Calendar Month	New Threads	New Posts	New Members
December 2009	217 ~~216~~	2659 ~~2624~~	47
November 2009	205	2302	40
October 2009	156	2032	43
September 2009	158	1876	35
August 2009	141	2150	43
July 2009	175	2065	32
June 2009	182	2493	20
May 2009	141	2328	44
April 2009	142	2010	23
March 2009	110	1770	32
February 2009	102	1741	39
January 2009	163	2499	31

Why the difference, then? I feel that I'm now amongst old friend here (I mean "longstanding" not "ancient", of course!) and I know that some others feel the same. Touching wood, our servers have run very well ... and yet I know that if there's an issue I'll get an email to let me know from certain people. And a comment like "this is the first place I check in the morning" warns my heart, even from someone I could pass in the street and neither know nor take a second glance at. We seem to have become a real community of friends.

Last month, the GWRUS^▸ responses went in, yesterday I urged you to complete a Network Rail Station Survey and earlier today I submitted a response to the Wiltshire Core Strategy.

There's a need to keep vigilant - to keep saying "hey - this isn't in the travellers interest", and "no - you can't cut that service" ... to keep a watch for a cancellation of new trains for a line, or a consultation that's going to threated a current service or a promised one.

Looking in an insular way (though Wiltshire is not an island!) I feel that we have turned a positive corner in the last seven months; we still have a journey ahead that will, perhaps, be long and tough until we have an appropriate TransWilts service. But the corner turned means that all parties are working for it far more, and there's not the suspicion that there's a lot of fillybustering going on (there IS, though, tough negotiation and continued brinkmanship where certain organisations look after other interests to the detriment of the passenger) - so I'm more optimistic about the next year or two.

Over a wider picture, I would be unwise to predict - except to predict an interesting year. The promises of funding and new schemes are better than they have been in my memory of being involved with rail campaigning (but that's only a short time), but the threat to those schemes, and existing services too, from an economy that's been squeezed and an incoming government, or whatever party, that may have or need to have a very different agenda, is great.

Perhaps I'm the last one still at work this evening (I'm awaiting guests checking in to our hotel, who have phoned to say they're running late) ... but please do follow up, anyone else who is still earning their 2009 money. And I'll be here early in the morning too as I'm on breakfast dury for the "hangover crew". I hope they can remember how to get back in when they come back from their party, or all be up in the early hours too. So my thoughts on New Years eve are with rail staff on duty, and my message for them is "even if you'r not passenger facing, thank you for what you do to make the passengers' journeys possible."

Edit ... to update numbers to include posts and topicd from those final hours of 2009. Happy New Year!