Hi, many thanks for posting our request Graham!
[snip]
b) What authority does anyone have to do anything?!
First - welcome to the forum, Cat. So much I want to / could say, but I have a day job to do ... so I'm going to choose just that one bit to answer.
When I first said "this doesn't look right" to the train services proposed from Melksham, way back in 2005, I wrote to my local newspaper and suggested anyone interested come around to our place one evening to have a chat about it. Zero authority, zero background in doing this sort of thing, and zero knowledge about trains in the 21st century. Didn't stop me as a maverick individual writing to people, challenging the system, asking for support. And indeed finding that others shared my view. But "Save the train" as we christened it was grass roots and simply had the growing authority of the interest of people to work with us.
We quickly teamed up with the Melksham Railway Development Group, who had brought the station re-opened in 1985 from a standing start via 3,000 passenger journeys a year up to around 10,000 and had like minds / concerns about the proposed service. With an elected committee, representatives of the local parishes, and small grants of a few hundred pounds a year to cover meeting costs and a few bits more from those councils,
MRDG» (now
MRUG» ) has a little more authority than our gang of individuals.
Moving on to current times - The TransWilts
CIC▸ (and
CRP▸ which is a part of it) grew from Save the Train and MRDG. It's a community interest company, with members who elect the board annually. Further, as from last September we're a designated service CRP - and prior to that point it meant a consultation arranged by the
DfT» which brought responses from train operators (passenger and freight), Network Rail, special interest groups, parish, unitary and wider councils, individuals, and probably others I have overlooked; we have also been vetted (and it was no automatic process) for
ACoRP▸ membership. That does give TransWilts a 'degree of authority' if you like - a background that's established, proven, and with people from all sides writing in to support what we do through a published management structure, annual accounts, policies and all the rest of it.
TravelWatch SouthWest is an organisation that brings together public transport groups across the South West of England. There's around 100 member groups and each sends a representative to twice-a-year general meetings where we're informed by others with more knowledge than ourselves, and where we can network to co-ordinate campaigns and objectives to we work for the common good where we can. There's a board and
AGM▸ at which directors are elected each on a three year cycle, and considerable between-meeting work in answering consultations, co-ordinating and welcoming members and to a lesser degree informing the press and media. Again - a degree of authority for the organisation.
Personally, some of the authority from the organisation rubs off on me from each of these organisations as Vice Chair of MRUG, and as a director of the TransWilts CIC and TravelWatch - and that does help in opening doors / speaking with people / having some weight of input. However, it's very much a double edged sword in that it means that I have a 'cabinet' responsibly and need to take care in expressing views which could be seen as having authority they really don't have, or are at odds with carefully crafted organisational policies. But really I'm very lucky with TransWilts, which is where most of my time and visibility lies. My role is the tactical one, getting people onto trains, passing in those little local requests for change that can help make a huge difference to people, and working with whoever is running the trains and stations. Not for me to know whether it should be private companies or some form or government or quango or co-operative (and I don't know - hugely complex subject!), nor to shout out too many views. It doesn't stop me from commenting that the 3,000 and 10,000 mentioned earlier is now 60,000 - which is a growth rate far in excess of the rail industry in general (or any other public transport mode?) so we have to be doing something right, and I would hate to see it jeopardised.
This forum is run by a team of moderators and admins ... any 'authority' here is vested in us by our members voting with their feet (or rather their fingers on the keyboard); we do run polls and consult with our member audience via posts where we're looking at potential issues. But overall it's a glorious free-for-all (subject to politeness, legality and being on-topic) that lets a lot of views be seen. I can report that it's quite widely read, and I am aware of instances where something's appeared here and gone on to influence outcomes.
Cat, you gave me a good hook onto which to hang this information ... looking back at "Save the Train" it's wonderful what flow from something done without any authority, and without any pretence of authority! I look forward to seeing your follow up posts - please don't be a "one hit wonder". Thanks
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