What was the line in Fields of Dreams? "If you build it, they will come"?
See
Fact/Myth for a discussion
If You Build it, Will They Come?
What is the relationship between intent and outcome? Does the Field of Dreams quote, “if you build it, they will come” have truth to it? Not exactly, but it does allude to an important and true concept (which is likely why we still quote, and mis-quote, it today).
The truth is: If you build it, you increase the odds of them coming. In other words, if you put thought and energy you put into a project you increase the likelihood of success.
[continues]
An interesting framework into which a discussion of rail enhancement projects can be slotted.
There
have been re-opening failures - you may argue "special case" or "that wasn't fully built" or "they we're given long enough to come" in those cases, but a typical enhancement is so heavily studied, analysed, costed these days, with massive "optimism factors" built in to the equations - that it may feel like the misquoted "build it and they will come" when you look back at each story and how they tend to do very well.
I was up in Swindon yesterday (picture clearly shows!) - with a whole lot of Community Rail representatives learning / being updated on the various changes underway. And indeed the changes are underway and actually happening. At platform 4, an
IET▸ was headed to Bristol and beyond - very recent. At platform 2 sat a 166 - that's 'new' this year. And the Westbury 2 coach train arrived at and left from platform 1 ... again 'new' this year. And during the day, talk had turned very much to capacities, loadings, etc.
The Swindon - Westbury ("with some services extended to Salisbury and Southampton") service runs across fertile ground for building traffic - extraordinarily fertile, with intermediate locations and destinations all being already-flourisihing communities and mostly with their own extant connections already - but those connections each lacking a direction that needs infill.
Just how flourishing those communities are, and how much those connections with the communities and weaving their way into the very fabric of the communities, was brought home in the evening when I was at a fund-raiser meal (at a Melksham restaurant) with the local retired greyhound group . From the far end of the table I heard a discussion - oft heard - about travel in the area, with someone talking of longer distance travel and driving up to Chippenham to catch the longer distance train, someone else surprising them with the news that Melksham has a station, and a third person chipping in that they use it quite a bit but for many local journeys it needs to be more frequent than every 2 hours.
Build it properly, to an appropriate level, iron out any show-stopper glitches that prevent them coming, and in our neck of the woods they WILL come up to a certain level to the TransWilts train service. I could pretty confidently say that an hourly train each way all day and evening (midnight to 05:30 gap) would - by the end of the current decade - have each train as busy as each train was last year. I could pretty confidently say that improvement of station access (
thoughout the day, in both directions, reliably connecting) for those without their own car and for whom walking / cycling to the station isn't an option would - over a couple of years ramp-up - give a big positive difference too.
But you'll note that I've only gone so far with "build it and they will come". Run a service at 15 minute frequency and - until there's further development in the area - you'll find your trains are not as busy as the one pictured. And up the service to Mallaig, or Barton on Humber, or calling at Kirton Lindsey to hourly and I suspect they would take so many years to come that the service would have lost support and steam and gone away before they came.
There ARE other "build it and they will come" opportunities out there. Now that extra turbos are out there with local capacity, I suspect that building a station at Aztec West for the work area there, and another for Westgate Distribution Park (where there is further development potential) and giving them a decent joined up service would boost the traffic on that line rather noticeably and surprisingly fast.
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