Advent Quiz ...

[whole diary]

[patch38]

Melksham?




(Well, it had to be worth a try...  )

[grahame]

Melksham?

(Well, it had to be worth a try...  )

Amazingly, not Melksham.  I do know that other members were present when I took this picture, and in light of what that comment sometimes suggests I can also tell you it's not Taunton.

For the final few days of the Advent quiz, I'm slewing across towards picture that involve people - people in all sort of roles without whom we wouldn't have the passenger rail network as it is today.

[ellendune]

Community Rail Awards?

[grahame]

Community Rail Awards?

Grease ... "tell me more, tell me more ...."

[chrisr_75]

Seeing as no one else has bitten, with some credit to google:

Floral Hall, Southport convention centre?

[grahame]

Seeing as no one else has bitten, with some credit to google:

Floral Hall, Southport convention centre?

Yes, it is.   Community Rail is a big story in getting together all parties to bring life and passenger traffic to what have been lesser lines and services.  Volunteers from the community, professionals from the rail industry going over and above their job specs, and local authority elected members and officer taking the innovative approach to things all come together to make a success - a more used facility than would otherwise be the case, with ACoRP^▸ (Association of Community Rail Partnerships) numbers suggesting that a community rail line / service on average grows 4.2% per annum more than a similar line without community rail.  And it's not just about the line - it's about the economics of the area it serves too.

In striving for awards, community rail teams are encouraged to look at themselves against the wider picture of community rail as a whole and to an extent manage their effort and resources for maximum effect.  And the overall structure and awards help encourage some of the less forward organisation involved to be comforted into knowing that they're supporting a national scheme rather than going out n a limb when they support the line(s) within their locality.

A cold and exposed platform on a wet October morning, litter picking or pulling up weeds, isn't everyone's idea of fun for a volunteer.   Nor is travelling out to some town or village hall many miles from home on a dark evening to face a crowd of demanding user or potential users for rail manager or local government officers who would be much more comfortable to be tucked up at home. But there are people who do these things for the great good, and the awards are the opportunity to say a huge "Thank You" to them and to celebrate the best of success even though we know that there are hour and days of unthanked and sometimes frustrating grind to get there.

This forum's in "Great Western Land" and it's noted that the overall winner at the ACoRP awards was "Great Western Railway, and its partnerships and volunteers".   This overall award is unusual in that it's not something that's applied for / sought - it's given without expectation or influence by the combined judging panels who have been out and about around the country.  And having spoken with many community rail people from elsewhere in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), I have to agree with the judges in their decision;  in the present GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) team from top to bottom, and in the volunteers on my own line and those I have met across the franchise area, we have a remarkable group.  So may I add a big "Thank You" here.

Because we're celebrating the excellent and top performance in this post, though, doesn't mean we should be resting on our laurels.   The "best" may not be 100% the view of everyone and there's always scope for improvement - as this forum shows.  There's a need for everyone to continue in the "critical friend" mode for us all to work together - a partnership that learns from the other partners and from its customers and strives for ever better over the years.

[grahame]

[JayMac]

Well House Manor

[grahame]

Well House Manor

Correct ...

Moving on from places to people, this is a meeting of the Melksham Rail User Group - formerly the Melksham Rail Development Group - showing a number of the people who have put significant time into supporting the cause of a much improved service over many years.  I personally got involved around a dozen years ago now, and every one of these people pictured was already on the scene at that time and have stuck with the vision, now being delivered and vindicated, when few others had faith that a better train service made sense.

[grahame]

And for Christmas Eve

[Western Pathfinder]

Taunton !.....

[PhilWakely]

Melksham - Santa Special.

[froome]

Well it's obviously the regular Melksham to Taunton service that only runs in someone's fantasy world. 

[grahame]

Melksham - Santa Special.

Yes, it is.

The railways and services we cover here are all about carrying a customer base of passengers between places, and their success or otherwise can be colloquially measured by the number of passengers carried and the passenger satisfaction.  Those measures have the most enormous number of contributory factors and I'm not even going to attempt a partial list here.

There are other factors too - such as the cost (or payment to) the taxpayer and to shareholders and other stakeholders, to the wider communities that the passengers are travelling to and from, and to the team of people employed or contracted to provide elements of the service and the infrastructure to support it.  Some in the area served by Southern trains might also argue political and government and trades union factors.  And not all of these factors necessarily pull in the same direction.

You'll notice it's taken me three hours to confirm to PhilWakely that the picture was indeed Melksham.  And that's because I've been on the TransWilts train up to a none-railway event in Chippenham.  Having our dog Gypsy with me, people seems to want to talk (but the 9 minute run only allows a short conversation).  I'm old enough to hold a senior card, and I spoke with an old boy travelling on this own who was old enough to be my father.  He was headed from Trowbridge to Lincoln to spend Christmas with family; train Trowbridge to Swindon where he was being met by the next generation who were then all going to drive the rest of the way.

The train saved his daughter an extra two hour round trip in the car prior to the 3 hours to Lincoln.  It made the day more tolerable for my new friend, who was relaxed and able to move around in the train.  It helped him maintain his independence and heath (15 minute walk to Trowbridge Station!) and sanity (he had mixed feelings about a large family gathering).   A micro example and lots of micro examples go on to make the macro. And on my round trip, there was not just that one person using the train but 43 - each with their own story and reason.

[grahame]

Well it's obviously the regular Melksham to Taunton service that only runs in someone's fantasy world. 

Ah - you mean http://www.go-op.coop/train/ :



Back in the last decade, I was told that a proper peak hour service and trains though the day from Chippenham via Melksham and Trowbridge were my fantasy world (not quite that wording) ... on Radio 4 by the Minister for Rail, no less. A very large number of people disagreed with him, and over subsequent years the case was built and three years ago this month, a trial service of proper peak hour trains and services throughout the day was started. Such has been the success of the trial that it's now confirmed as permanent.

The team behind the Goop proposals have identified some very clear, significant, untapped flows along their route and the team includes some very knowledgable people and a great deal of enthusiasm.  I don't know which way the TransWilts will develop in future years from the new base of 9 trains each way per day (8 Saturday, 5/6/7 Sunday) but I wouldn't rule out Taunton as fantasy.