Hi, Chris, and welcome to the forum.
We're very new - "The new kid on the block" - so visibility isn't great yet. However, the board's an offshoot from the
Save the train website and forum that I've been running for some 18 months which concentrates on the TransWilts service (Swindon to Westbury and Salisbury) and has managed to get the service reduction from being a single line on page 52 of an
SRA» report into something that's been and being looked at as a serious transport issue.
There are many issues that we on the TransWilts in Melksham, you in Bridgwater, Roger in Cornwall, Penny in Pangbourne and Ivan in South Wales have to raise with the same players - the Department for Transport, First, Network Rail ... and as a result of some requests for space on "Save the Train" we set this up. To cover lines / sections / services that don't have their own local groups / active boards, and to discuss common issues. "Save the Train" wasn't quite the right URL or place - there's a big danger there of issues that effect huge groups of passengers - such as Paddington commuters - drowning out the important local case.
I'm 100% in agreement with you, Chris, in working
with the operator (and appreciating that they're a private company, motivated by profit). Without a dramatic shake up of the system - something beyond my personal remit / thought - that's far and away the best way to come up with an appropriate solution for everyone. I would argue that it's naughty of First to claim completely to be a powerless victim of the situation - I understand they would still have won the franchise with a bid of 1.05 billion rather that 1.1 billion, and the extra 50 million pounds would have given them the money to retain every single cut service for the 10 years duration. And at the same time, I'm not a Luddite and I'll say I probably wouldn't have WANTED them to have retained certain historic oddities but rather to revamp for the future. Actually, at the moment I'm rather encouraged by some aspects of a December (2007) timetable draft from the
DfT» under
FOI▸ , and concerned at other aspects.