Corsham Station reopening

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I have admired Anne Lock's campaign for a new station for Corsham since I got involved with the the railway business last year (TransWilts line / Save the Train).  Anne has been at it for much longer and, but for a cruel twist, would now be using the train from Corsham whenver she needed to visit Bath, Swindon or London.

Recent developments give certain new hopes to Anne's campaign - and the many others involved - and I'm happy to be providing a little information here, and a discussion board, so that they can use this electronic medium too.

[grahame]

By the way - as well as thsi discussion board, we providing a "front page" at

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/corsham.html

[Lee]

People are being asked for their views on controversial plans to use money allocated for Corsham railway station to fund other projects in the town (link below.)
http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/display.var.1915819.0.views_sought_on_town_cash_plan.php

Residents are being asked to write to town clerk David Martin with their comments following a town council meeting last week, at which only one councillor voted against the proposal.

The money was set aside as part of a section 106 agreement by the developers of Katherine Park to put towards a railway station for Corsham.

In October, North Wiltshire district councillor Christine Reid held a meeting in Corsham Town Hall to ask residents of the Katherine Park estate if they would like to see the ^252,000 go towards a community hall.

Residents voted in favour of the proposal, which angered campaigners for Corsham station.

People are now being asked to make their suggestions before the next leisure committee meeting at the town hall on January 9.

Corsham town councillor Peter Davis has been campaigning to get the station reopened for the past 25 years.

He said: "I am prepared to support an alternative use of the money if there is no possibility in any shape or form that the station is not going to materialise."

"Everyone is talking as if they are going to lose the money now, but this is not the case as it will be available for the next ten years."

"I said at the meeting that it is a very premature decision and I did say categorically that the decision to utilise the money for alternative uses should not really be considered at this stage."

Anyone wanting to comment on the proposals can write to town clerk David Martin at the Town Hall, High Street, Corsham SN13 OEZ.

[Graz]

I have some good friends who live in Box, and currently if they go by rail they normally go to Chippenham. But they have said that a station in Corsham would be a lot easier to get to than there or Bath Spa. Box and Corsham are two fairly big places, and I feel the case for a station is very strong. Of course, the major problem is the availibility of trains that could stop there.

Unless the direct Bristol to Oxford services were reinstated, the only other solution I could think of would be some HST^▸ (High Speed Train) stops which may have to sacrifice calls other stations like Didcot Parkway. A shuttle service from Bath to Swindon probably wouldn't be viable enough just for the benefit of Corsham.

I hope the funding isn't withdrawn until serious talks are made by North Wilts council/ Katherine Park developers and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) / the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) over any possible solutions to providing services to the station.

[grahame]

Unless the direct Bristol to Oxford services were reinstated, the only other solution I could think of would be some HST^▸ (High Speed Train) stops which may have to sacrifice calls other stations like Didcot Parkway. A shuttle service from Bath to Swindon probably wouldn't be viable enough just for the benefit of Corsham.

One of the ideas that it was suggested to me that I should suggest for the TransWilts service was Salisbury - Warminster - Dilton Marsh - Westbury - Trowbridge - Melksham - Chippenham - Corsham - Bath - Oldfield Park - Keynsham - Temple Meads (and perhaps on to Portishead).    Normally I might have ruled such a dogleg route out quite quickly, but it came from a gentlemen who has a lot of good ideas and knows and speaks to the transport ministers on, I gather, a quite frequent basis.  I'm sure some of you know him very well.

There's a degree of sanity.  Change at Chippenham for Swindon / London is fine off the TransWilts, as long as it's not a 55 minute wait. And a great deal of Melksham traffic (road as well as rail) is in the Bath / Bristol direction.

[drew22299]

Here is the petition:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/corshamstation/

[corshamjim]

I spoke with Anne Lock about the station campaign a few weeks ago but have heard nothing back since.  Is there any plan to hold a public meeting soon?  The impression I get is that there are quite a few people in the town willing to get involved in the campaign if only it had more of a public face.

If you're able to do a press release about the petition and any other news about the campaign, please can you send it to me for publication on Corsham Diary?

[corshamjim]

Grahame, that front page seems to be largely broken now, and the link seems to point to an inaccessible forum topic.  Would you mind fixing it a little if you have a minute please, and if there's a particular forum I should be posting in for Corsham related topics let me know?

thanks,

Jim

Web Admin for Corsham Diary

[grahame]

Hi, Jim .... and welcome to the Forum.   I have corrected the page / links and I can confirm that this "campaign for new and improved services" is indeed the place for Corsham material / comments.  In fact I would be delighted to have a separate area for that campaign (as we have for the TransWilts serving Melksham) should it grow sufficiently.

Can you give us an update here, please, on the campaign?  I think a lot of it's off the web!

[corshamjim]

I was hoping someone here might know how the campaign is going.  Last I heard was from Anne Lock a few weeks ago saying there was a committee meeting coming up at which time they would discuss holding a public meeting and possibly getting a web-site together too.  I'm not on the committee so am not 'in the loop' so to speak.  I'll see if I still have Anne's number and will give her a call if no-one else posts here in the next day or two.

Many thanks for fixing the web page - if I can point people in the direction of the discussion here, hopefully it will help to increase the numbers of people talking about it and help to keep everyone informed as and when the campaign can get a meeting together.

It seems the proposal to spend the money associated with Katherine Park on something other than the Station is firmly shelved for now.

North Wilts District Council have been spending what money they have left on various projects rather than hand over any spare cash to the new Unitary Authority for Wiltshire which is due to come in to existence soon.  They've allocated some money for research in to rail travel for Corsham people, but unfortunately this will concentrate on options for improving travel from Corsham to Chippenham station rather than actually reopening the station at Corsham.  It will be interesting to see if the research manages to come up with anything at all useful.

[Lee]

CANBER^▸ (Campaign Against the New Beeching Report) is firmly in support of opening a station at Corsham, and we have recently been lobbying FGW^▸ (First Great Western) on this and other matters (click on http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=1407.msg8181#msg8181) Their view is that there needs to be a suitable local service to call at the station.

Of course, this problem can be traced back to when the SRA^» (Strategic Rail Authority - about) withdrew the Oxford-Bristol service, which in turn prompted the SRA view that Corsham station could not be reopened because there was no longer a service that could call there. Things were actually looking very promising for Corsham up until that point.

We will keep plugging away though.

[corshamjim]

Thanks Lee,

I've just been looking up CanBer on the web.  Is it's home still on the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) action network?  I ask because it seems the BBC will be shutting the Action Network down shortly: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A33049172

[Lee]

Thanks Lee,

I've just been looking up CanBer on the web.  Is it's home still on the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) action network?  I ask because it seems the BBC will be shutting the Action Network down shortly: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A33049172

Yes, we are still on Action Network for the time being (link below.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/G1517

We aim to relocate elsewhere before the April 30 deadline, and I will let the Coffee Shop know when we do.

[corshamjim]

Thanks Lee, FWIW^▸ (for what it's worth), I registered my support anyway. 

[Lee]

Thanks Lee, FWIW^▸ (for what it's worth), I registered my support anyway. 

Many thanks