A very busy
AGM▸ of the Melksham Railway Development Group ... officers ...
Chair - Peter Blackburn; Secretary - Sion Bretton; ViceChair - Graham Ellis; Treasurer - John Money, with others present forming the new committee. Next dusty IRL meeting 5th September, but lots happening in the meantime. As well as
MRDG» matters, we covered TransWilts
CRP▸ matters .
* Stakeholder update (which was circulating amongst the team yesterday) now amended and approved - see it at
http://atrebatia.info/may2014_stakeholder.pdfThis is a background document for our submission to the First Great Western stakeholder's report, so it's written for readers with some rail knowledge / background who, however, are not familiar with the TransWilts
* We discussed the
FGW▸ / Community Rail Partnership agreement document that has been widely circulated amongst our members (and also to four other CRPs) and from a TransWilts view, we endorse and approver the direction taken. This will let the TransWilts CRP move forward in an even more integrated and business-like way ... much of the practise called for is in any case good business sense, and as we are already looking at the cost v the benefit of projects and elements of projects, it lays down a network of understanding for where we are already.
* We discussed the 10th
ACoRP▸ annual awards, and whether the TransWilts should be making any nominations this year; as the cutoff date is 20th June and (with one exception) the categories are all for complete projects, I suggested that it was too early to enter with everything being ongoing. The meeting took a slightly different approach and concluded that certain activities were 'launch' projects/activities which could be regarded as already completed successfully, with us now moving in to the next phase. And as such we plan to submit two projects to ACoRP
* We discussed the Department for Transport's consultation document for the 2015 to 2020 franchise. There was disquiet in the current service on the TransWilts being described simply as "every 2 hours" when the very successful new service is in fact "every 2 hours off peak / hourly at peak times".
The consultation document suggest that the starting point for the new SLC▸ (service level commitment) should be the current service level - which is perfectly reasonable if that's the true current level, and will be totally unacceptable to us if it's the level as stated in the consultation document, as it would allow a 25% cut in services / 50% cut in peak services / 75% cut in traditional 9-to-5 commuter journey opportunities. MRDG has a number of longstanding members who remember the draconian cuts made in 2006 to a service that had grown (Melksham passenger numbers) 10 fold from 2001, and wishes to ensure that the same thing does not happen again. On a more positive note, the group will be making inputs that suggest ways to develop the service positively and economically.
Figures were presented to the meeting reporting current traffic levels, modes of transport to and from the station, and an analysis of previous journey patterns by the people using the train - only 8% of them stated that they had been TransWilts users last year, so that's an awful lot of new traffic! Also presented were customer aspirations / desires (much of this data from our Wiltshire Council partners in the CRP, to whom we give a vote of thanks
)
Ongoing traffic development continues, with members reporting that publicity and marketing is reaching them.
Inadequate bustitution arrangements on 4th and 5th May was discussed. It resulted in a journey time of 45 minutes from Westbury to Swindon being extended to 140 minutes with two vehicle changes along the way and included long waits, and also resulted in potential travellers being turned away due to the bus being unable to take all the things that people wanted to take (and could have taken) with them by train - dogs, push chair for the child on the day out.
We discussed inputs solicited via partners to Network Rail to help ensure a more positive response to engineering changes than has been happening of late with long road closures while bridges are rebuilt.
Finally, we're all going to be walking in the Melksham Carnival parade on 12th July, handing out information about Melksham's train services ahead of the summer school holidays to all the hordes of people who usually watch the parade. We'll be turning it into a bit of a showcase with an invite to other groups and individuals to come to Melksham by train earlier in the day before heading out on the 20:02 after the parade.
Put this date in YOUR diary! ...
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